Anna goes to the movies

Y'all are gonna think I'm crazy.

Or hormonal.

Or both.

The other day I was venting about how mopey and lonely I am. Today - I'm totally, 100% in love with my life.

Right now, I'm sitting here in Anna's nursery, on our comfy glider, coffee by my side (I've started drinking coffee... I felt like now was a good time in my life to give it the ol' college try), laptop on my lap (ha!), listening to the Sleep Sheep ocean sounds and watching my beautiful daughter nap in her crib.

It's 9:00am, I'm in my jammies (and so is Anna), and we don't plan on rushing around or doing anything we don't feel like today. (Although - we do have plans to go for a walk with Uncle Chris - and we're excited about that!)

What a world we live in.

I get to do this day in and day out for a year. That's pretty amazing.

Yesterday, Anna and I had a very busy day. First, we went to visit my friend Kim and her boys. Kim's 3-year old made a beautiful piece of artwork for Baby Anna - adorned with feathers and jewels. He carefully explained all of the details to Anna in a quiet whisper, as he covered her with kisses. It was quite possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen.

After that, I had planned on going home and cleaning up before 3 of my friends were dropping by for the evening. But, since it was still relatively early, I decided on a whim to check out this thing called Mommy and Me movies.

There's a local cinema that plays movies for Moms so that they can bring their babies. It's a pretty neat set up. They've got a change table station available, you get your admission at a discounted price, and they play the movie a little bit quieter than normal with the lights just a little bit dimmed.

So I went in, Anna in her car seat, and sat down with my popcorn and drink, ready for the movie to begin. Then Anna started crying. Of course, nobody in the theatre looked at me funny, because they've all been there, too.

Since Anna is the Perfect Baby, all I had to do was throw on the stretchy wrap thingy I have, get her all snuggled up next to me in it, and stand in the back row, swaying back and forth a little bit. The next thing I knew, Anna was asleep and stayed that way for the entire movie.

And even though I didn't have a bottle for her, if she had woken up hungry, I would have felt perfectly at home. (At one point, I looked around the theatre and noticed about 4 moms nursing their babies). No hiding under blankets or hooter hiders... which is so much easier.

So - I've realized something. Despite the fact that I didn't chat much with the other Moms (we were there to watch a movie after all - and most of them brought a friend or Grandma with them anyway), I realized that I love doing Mom things.

I love being with other Moms.

I love this little club. I love the knowing glances and smiles. I love seeing other Moms smother their little ones with kisses. I love sharing our stories and talking about how old our babies are now.

In fact, when I told one Mom that Anna was 3 months old, her response was: "Wow - well, you're doing great if you're out and about already at 3 months."

If she only knew that I'd already been on a road trip, started exercising, planned out a full week of activities next week, been on many play dates, and taken Anna out to eat at a restaurant several times already.

So... yeah. I'd say I'm feeling pretty darn good right now.