My Weekend with Serenity ~ Vida Bonita

It is a little strange to talk about because I don't want to give anyone any ideas about when Matt and I are going to have kids because we honestly don't know. The pressure will just make things difficult so I try not to talk too much about it. What I can say is that after going from completely rejecting the idea of having a baby simply because there's too many things that we want to do, the idea is seeming nicer and nicer. Kids are so darn cute and having a little Matt or Shanna (hopefully Matt) around would be simply adorable. There's no doubt in my mind that Matt is going to be an amazing dad. When I see him interact with kids it absolutely melts my heart. It makes me wanna say, "Let's just go for it! Take the plunge! I'll be ready in 9-ish months!" These little thoughts have been popping up in my mind much more in the last year than perhaps my entire life combined. I am a scientist (right?) and scientists like experiments, so let's do a little test. Sound good?

Danielle is my very best friend and 3.5 years ago she had little miss Serenity. I've talked about Serenity before and I just love her. She is a tiny version of her mom. It is crazy how much they are alike. Well Danielle told me a long time ago that she had a wedding to go to in Eureka Springs for one of her good friends and I immediately volunteered to watch Serenity. I thought it would be fun to spend time with her and an opportunity for Matt and I to care for a little human for a whole 48 hours.

This is our story.

We were really excited that she was coming over so we did a little shopping. We bought her toys, clothes, and junk food. I felt a little bad because I bought several things that I don't intend to feed my kids, but I decided that this was a little vacation for her and I'm sure I'll loosen up on my kids on vacation.

Matt's parents have a really fun place for kids, especially in the summer. So we loaded her up and headed south. She was super cute in the car and Matt and I found ourselves saying things like "Yeah, we could do this!"

We totally taught her to swim just with her floaties on, which to my knowledge she hadn't ever done all by herself before. I made videos and sent them to her parents. We swam for something like 2 hours and had a great time. She just swam and swam and even after just meeting Lisa she would jump in her arms and swim to her and say "I wub you!"

Sometime around pool time I got a harsh dose of parenting that we wont discuss. I may never be clean again.

She also played in Matt's old club house. She loved it! Until she saw a spider. Like her mom, the kid does not do bugs.

So she took a stroll around on Ian's (Matt's Nephew) four wheeler.

Then we took her to "Kiddie Land" in town which is operated by the local Kiwanis club. I love small towns. I really do. She rode the carousel. Twice.

All four of us took the train.

And she wanted to ride the shark plane. Other kids were scared, but not this one. She kept rocking her plane before it started, which shook the whole apparatus. The other kids with near tears in their eyes were yelling at her to stop. It was a little hilarious.

And we topped it off with a sugar free sno cone. I hated to give the kid aspartame, but my goodness she had a ton of energy.

Which didn't last long.

She slept for something like 12 hours. We put a blow up mattress in our room for her. I would have let her sleep with us but our bed is so high and I would have worried that she would fall off. She liked having her own special bed.

Then I had to give her a bath. We have a jacuzzi tub which she thought was pretty cool and it also made TONS of bubbles. When I was a kid I always wanted a bath with so many bubbles like in the little mermaid.

Remember in Big Daddy when he made the kid wear his bathing suit in the bath tub because he didn't know what the rules were? I didn't make her wear her bathing suit, but I had to sit on the side and put my feet in so I wore mine because it just seemed more appropriate.

Then I made her chicken and waffles for breakfast because I thought it was funny. I also need more "Kid friendly" stuff because I couldn't bring myself to let her use our discontinued plates in case she accidentally broke it because kids are kids. I do NOT like using disposable stuff though. That made me a little nuts. Matt and I are going to have a long talk about diapers and pull-ups and stuff because I can't handle generating that much waste. There seems to be a lot of options somewhere between cloth and totally disposable. It's 2013.

So then we went to the park in our neighborhood. We both played on the swings. I hadn't been on a swing in a long time. It's good fun!

I wanted to buy her a little bit of summer clothes and I promised her she could pick out a toy. I took her to Ross so the damage couldn't be too big. She picked out a Disney Princess bubble blower thing. She took time to check herself out while we were in line. Again, her mother's child.

And then she got it stuck in her hair. I haven't told Danielle this part yet...

Then we went to ANOTHER park. Uncle Matt is such a good pusher.

And he brought home sparklers for her. We put her in Matt's shirt because she had already had a bath.

And the next day I took her to Sapulpa to meet up with her mom. Look at her cute t-shirt I got her. It says "Little Cowgirl" and I was trying to teach her to Go Pokes. Her dad is a big OU fan, but he can't blame me for trying =)

So what did we think? How was it? Do we want to have kids? Speed the process along?

Well I love Serenity, and I think she has good parents that have done a good job of raising her. She really didn't help or hurt our prospects of having children. It was nice to know that she had fun and that we didn't have any injuries and we are indeed responsible enough to care for a child. However, I had to spend so much time entertaining her (like all children need), I didn't get any of my own work done. At all. I still have at least 2 years left of school, and that's if I work REALLY REALLY hard because it's really more realistic to take another 3 years. The biggest thing is that I know when we have a child, that child is going to become my priority, even over my career. I really don't want to put myself in a position where I might have to choose. I want to do a lot of wise planning and try to have it all. I still have a lot of adventures I want to go on before we slow things down. Well, maybe things wont slow down, but our focus will be on other things. I really like the fact that if I want to go do anything at all right now, nothing is limiting me. My time is essentially my own. So honestly, while I'm becoming more open to the idea of parenting, I am still a little too selfish at this point in my life to fully dedicate myself to someone else.

But as for Serenity, I would hang out with that kid any time.