Life as I see it

Having a baby has made me realize how different men and women really are.

Since having Henry, I only practice the most basic of hygiene. I get a shower in every day without fail, but often go without makeup, shaving or drying my hair. I throw on some wrinkled clothes, brush my teeth and I am out the door. I actually wiped up spit up today with my skirt and then still wore it outside. I am quite the sight.

Adam's routine on the other hand has not changed at all. I laugh that he will say, "Why don't I take a shower and you watch Henry and then we will switch while you get ready." I can take a shower after him, and still have both Henry and I ready before he is done.

When we are going somewhere, I call putting Henry in his stroller "activating the launch sequence." I don't do it until the last possible second, with keys in hand. Especially when he was younger, he was like a ticking time bomb. Adam on the other hand will load him in there way too early and then push him around the apartment. Henry is thrashing around in there and he is wandering around, brushing his teeth, and doing lots of other "non-essential" things. Sometimes Henry and I will be waiting for the elevator and he has to make two more trips inside for his sunglasses or some other crazy thing. I want to say, "forget about that and just run for your life! We have a crazy caged lion in this thing!" But of course I hold back (snicker). Or, he will make some crazy suggestion that we sit down and have lunch somewhere in a restaurant. I look at him and ask, "Have you met your son? Does sitting down somewhere to eat seem like it might be remotely pleasant?"

Henry and I were in the park this week, sitting on a blanket playing. I was watching this lady who can only be described as "Superwoman." She had triplets that were less than a year old, and a friend's baby who looked like he was around two. All of the children had on hats, and were happily ensconced in different activities. She was feeding one of the babies a bottle and at the same time reading very enthusiatically to the two year old. I can't even imagine how she got all of them out of the house. On the other side of the lawn was a man, walking with his young daughter in circles around the grass. No blanket to sit on, no hat, and her onesie was unsnapped and hanging out of her pants. The contrast just gave me a little chuckle.

I will leave you with an interesting study that I read. Although in most cases, women do the majority of the childrearing, when entering a social situation the man always wants to carry the baby inside. Of course leaving his wife behind to drag in all of the packages.