Growing up into parents

SD and I were one of those, who celebrated our monthly anniversary the entire first year of marriage. We maintained a calendar a list of events/ places we visited we did when we were dating and post marriage. We would look at the excel spreadsheet, and remember stories of the expedition, look at those pictures.. and smile at our funky hair do's (SD had a phase of growing his hair that time.. i swear no spikes, just longer hair ;-)and me with funky bangs ]

Entire time for SD and me, like any other couple, was like a whirlwind and a never ending party! After i moved to DC, he would travel M-F, and weekends we would explore, new places, meet friends in the east cost, chill and pretty much never be home. And totally live on the spur of the moment. Then we said, lets slow down, lets actually be home for a bit! And we enjoy every minute of it. We'd meet our friends, and then chill the next weekend, by doing nothing but putting feet on the coffee table and enjoying a movie or going for a walk or a hike on the ‘Great Falls’.

We have a beautiful daughter, and the monthly anniversaries now revolve around her turning a month older and the calendar is more for her when she ate her first cereal, her first smile etc. etc. But we both still, once in a while sit down and reminisce about the first few months of new found happiness of parenthood and when V was small she'd do this. Completely forgetting, that she still is small ;-)
We have gotten into this wonderful schedule, if you will, over weekdays. Times of bowling on weeknights have been long forgotten. Our evenings are more to ensure things are in place for the next rushed morning. The good thing is V off to her dream land by early evening.... so we have the remainder of the night pretty much for ourselves.. to sit back and enjoy yummy home cooked food, and a nice Entourage episode.

Weekends are still spontaneous, yes it’s more around kiddie activities, but we don’t think twice before going with V to the park! She loves it, and we love looking at her on the slide with the wind in her hair :-) We still travel, meet all our friends, and make enough time for poker, movies (at home) and all that we did before! Yes, there are more planned brunches than dinners for sure! Only change, keep the volumes down a bit to ensure V doesn't wake up!
Yes, V is growing up, but i think more than her, SD and I are growing up into parents. Of course we do make our mistakes as parents. We argue about is this healthy for her or not. We'll discuss the day care, and which weekend park to play ball with her. With V getting bigger, we are evolving into parents. Still having our own time... knowing very well, very soon, weekends will be more for the soft ball games, and ballet classes.. and less of just "chilling" out.

Do we miss our more carefree and less responsible selves? Sometimes yes! But with kids, does life change? Yes, i would say it does and it evolves! It makes it more amazing and more beautiful! And its still a never ending party of the ‘goo goo’ and the ‘gaa gaa’ and the baby blabber!
“Life is good!”