The Mommy Moment

I've been planning to write this post for awhile but of course mommy life delays occurred.  One of them being Elizabeth's 2nd birthday party.  Oh well. 

So I want to begin by admitting that I never really felt like "a mommy".   When I was pregnant, I just felt like me but pregnant.  When I gave birth and then held this tiny precious baby; I just felt like me holding a baby. I've even had a lady at work ask me if I had any baby wipes because she knows that I have a small child and she thought I'd have some in my purse.  But of course I didn't.  I didn't even up-grade to a bigger purse for the longest time.  I kept a purse that I used day to day for work and then when I went anywhere with the baby I'd take her diaper bag too. 

Don't get me wrong; I mean I've felt like "Mommy" when Elizabeth's pulling on my leg yelling it over and over while I did the dishes but I didn't feel like a mommy...that is until I had the mommy moment. 

It came when I was at work one day last month.  I get to my desk and I open my purse to get something out and what did I find, actually what 2 surprise things did I find... First was her little Dora the Explorer snack trap.  At some point I'd taken it from her diaper bag and put it in my purse then I forgot to take it out.  No big deal; it made a good late afternoon work snack.

But then the second thing I found was the clincher. It was a phone.  Not my cell phone but the actual house phone handset!  Chris had it with him in the front yard while he was raking and when I got home with the baby I picked it up, stuffed it in my purse with the snack trap and took all the bags inside.  Then the regular dinnertime, bath time, bedtime happenings unfolded and I never checked back to take everything out.  Chris even asked me where the phone went that night and I had assumed that Elizabeth took it to play with and it was stuck in the couch cushions.

It was at that moment standing at my desk, when I really felt like, "whoa, I have turned into a real mommy."  I have just experienced the rushed, disorganized, scattered-brained mommy haze that went beyond finding a couple of stray crayons at the bottom of my purse from dinner at a restaurant. 

Wow. I really am a full fledged M-O-M-M-Y.  Now when do I get the eyes in the back of my head?