One of the great probably not-so-secret secrets to enjoying parenthood is to ENJOY parenthood ie: do enjoyable stuff. As much enjoyable stuff as you can possibly do.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I cannot put in a decent work day or get much of anything done with my nanny temporarily out of comish. So, now that I'm once again a stay at home mom, I've been less obsessed with nap schedules and more interested in having fun-- planning adventures. Great adventures and small adventures and anything I can think of that Archer might find interesting, even if it means hanging out in pet stores for hours watching hooded rats sniff the corners of their cages, or pulling over when lost to run around an abandoned park in search of trees to hug. (Archer's going through a serious tree-hugging phase.)

There is a horribly cheesy quote that has been passed around fourteen squillion times about "dancing like no one is looking" made famous by chain mail spam and high school girl's yearbook pages but there is a lot of truth in those trite, overused words.  

Parenthood, in a way, has been liberating, because I don't really care what anyone thinks of me, anymore. So long as Archer likes my chicken-dance or thinks its funny when I talk to stuffed animals at the Natural History Museum, I'm cool.

It may have taken me a few weeks, but I have finally managed to relax and am starting to really enjoy these days with no real schedule other than the one I draw with squiggled blobs in crayon. I know that soon Archer will be in preschool and I won't have these long days  with him anymore-- the two of us decked out in stickers and museum buttons and zoo pamphlets and ice-cream stains.

And no matter what I might have said to the contrary, there really is nothing better than talking to stuffed elephants behind dirty railings, or staring into the preserved eyes of a Megamouth shark on a Tuesday afternoon hand in hand with my favorite wide-eyed adventurer.
 

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