My Purple Hayes Daze

Do you remember the surreal moments in the very beginning, when your first, new bundle of joy slept so silently in the other room that you actually forgot you even had a baby?  Or the time you vowed you would never allow your child’s toys to take over your adult living space?  Well, here you are now.  And you cannot even fathom ever forgetting that your child is here too.  And the freaky new thing is that she’s with you even when she is not actually with you.  Like the times you go blindly searching for the loose change at the bottom of your purse and instead grab seashells and twigs from the collection of random objects your child has found a nice home for in what you once coveted as your personal space.  These are the unexpected moments that remind you that you are a parent.  I, too, have many of these moments.

Recently, walking down the street, I noticed a humongous praying mantis at my feet just as I almost stepped on it!  (Allow me to insert here how freaky it is to see a giant praying mantis on a New York City sidewalk).  And what was I thinking?  Well, all fright aside, I found myself thinking of my kid, of course.  I could not help thinking of how cool Hayes would find this.  I even had the nerve to look through my purse for something in which to contain the praying mantis, just to show my kid.

There was a time when I would not have given a second thought to that praying mantis, other than how I would have managed to get it’s smashed carcass off of the bottom of my shoe.  It amazes me how the transformation from then to now happens right under our noses without our even being aware of it.  But I suppose that’s one of the beautiful and easy things about being a parent.