Out and about

The moral of today's story is that self-indulgence can take a heck of a lot of effort, especially with a little guy in tow.

We are a one car family. Generally speaking, this is wonderful and practical and money-saving and not really a big deal at all. But it also means that if I want the car one day, I have to bundle Espen into his car seat and take Nick to and from work, which in turn means that Espen and I end up spending a lot of time at home. And honestly, seeing as he eats every three hours and takes naps every two hours, it's really not a big deal at all.

But every once in a while a girl's just gotta get out of the house. Sometimes you just need some verbal communication and to see the world outside your own front door.

So that was my indulgence yesterday.

I braved the early morning commute with a baby (twice!), an off-kilter nap schedule, getting us both clean and fed and out the door with a two-hour window before Espen would start rapidly melting into an angry little puddle of exhaustion, and finally (only two hours behind our original schedule!) made it to my friend Brittany's house.

And it was really nice! We chatted in normally pitched voices about grown-up things while her son napped, and mine played. Of course, it has to be said that we mainly talked about our kids and things related to them, but that's OK, because Espen really is my life right now.

Of course we didn't make it home within the two hour window, and of course Espen fell asleep in the car and woke up too grumpy to fall asleep because his nap only lasted 20 minutes. But every once in a while it has to be OK to break our little routine and switch things up a bit. I wanted to do it because it would be good for me, but it's also fun to see how much Espen enjoys a change of scenery and meeting new people. And even a tiny break from the every day like going to see a friend goes so far towards ensuring that Espen has a happy mama.

More please.



The picture has nothing to do with the post, I'm just sharing my obsession with Espen in overalls.