More

So there are a lot of things new parents become “more” of, when a child turns a comfortable couple into a floundering family. Or at least things Daddy and I have become “more” of over the last 16 months:

More tired
More careful
More vulnerable
More fulfilled
More scared
More busy
More conscientious
More imaginative
More empathetic
More doubtful
More spiritual
More hopeful
More frugal
More charitable
More patient

But you want to know the biggest more we’ve discovered? More productive. And that realization hit me over the head like a frying pan last Saturday around 11 a.m.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving. Let’s rewind three or four years and see what was happening around 11 a.m. Not much, considering we were still sleeping off Friday night’s celebration and staring down a great big day of zero commitment, zero plans and zero initiative. Save maybe getting some Christmas decorations out, but only if inspiration really hit.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving 2010? We were up by 6:45 a.m., and before lunch I had done a load of laundry, put the diapers through three cycles, unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the hardwood and kitchen floors, cleaned both the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms, pruned the roses and raked the leaves from the front and back yards to the curb.

So the question becomes, will this state of super-fly productivity persist, even when Cayden grows old enough to understand the value of sleeping in and lazy afternoons? I hope not; I enjoyed the luxury of downtime.