The Mom Circuit

Moving into a new house when you are in the middle of your pregnancy does not lend itself to making new friends. I was huge, hot, and lazy. I was in no mood to go next door and say, "Hey! Let's go do something!" As the only thing I wanted to do was sit in my underwear and suck on Popsicles. For some reason though, the dogs did not find this fun, so I would find myself dragging the hairy beasts to the local dog park for some frolicking fun. One hot day Dakota frolicked right into a two year old and knocked her down. That is how I came to find myself actually having a conversation with two women in the middle of the day. Being preggo and Popsicle focused, I enjoyed the conversation, but left soon after.

A couple weeks later, Chris said, "Hey...shouldn't we be taking some birthing classes?" I laughed saying the baby wouldn't be here for WEEKS! He decided to look into it anyways. The type of classes we wanted to take were called Bradley classes. It turnes out they are 12 weeks long. We only had 12 weeks until our due date. This resulted in me being very upset that we would never be ready in time for the baby and Chris calling around to a lot of Bradley classes that were not surprisingly full given the fact that all these other parents probably had their shit together and were signed up for classes before they conceived. He finally got us into a class with a woman that condensed the material into 10 weeks, had room for us, and classes started the next week.

On the way to our first meeting we imagined we were headed to a weird hippie's house. We pictured plants and herbs sprouting from every imaginable corner, us sitting on yoga mats and learning how to stroke each other's hair. Instead, we were met by a very nice and normal looking woman, ushered into a very nice house, and plopped down on the gorgeous leather sofa in the home theater room. The other couple in the class arrived shortly after and the woman and I looked at each other and realized we knew one another from that hot day at the dog park when our Dakota knocked over her friend's little girl. A friendship was born.

Since then, Gina and I have joined numerous mom groups. There is the Monday morning group in Boulder, on Tuesdays we have our pick from a park playgroup, a neighborhood get together, or now, a Longmont get together. Wednesdays is the day off. On Thursdays we have the infant group in Boulder and Friday is for our casual get togethers at somebody's house. As funny as it is that I like to arrange my days based on these groups, they are a lifesaver. Four days a week, Austin and I have a focus. He has a group of supportive families around him that he will hopefully know for years to come, and I get to feel normal that I am not sitting at a desk somewhere. This might be the reason I went a little crazy in support of the Parenting Place. The non profit that puts these mom groups together and leads us together.

Last Saturday night the Parenting Place had a benefit. It was a fancy affair, so I was excited when Gina got a group of us together. I would finally get to communicate with these women without the babes hanging off our hips or sitting cross legged on the floor. Maybe we would get to drink a little (even though that has been adopted into our Friday afternoons, but still....), show off our hubby's, and talk in full paragraphs. Chris and I were some of the first to arrive, and a 9 year old boy asked us to buy a balloon. We did, for $20, and won a gift certificate for Noodles and Company. That was score enough for the night. The silent auction went on, and Chris and I were able to window shop and simply enjoy talking to the other guests. When the live auction came on, Chris and I were going to root root root for Kris and Gina as they were going for the biggie: the week long trip to Washington. They logically figured that they wanted to go somewhere this summer, and it's gorgeous up there, so why not support a good cause along the way? The auction was about half way done when all of a sudden my hand was shooting up in the air bidding on a weekend getaway to the mountains. Chris looked at me and said, "Ummm... was that an accident? Don't raise your hand when the bidding is happening....OH! You're doing it again!" And yes. Sure enough, my hand had just bid us a weekend trip to the mountains. And I won.

I'm not quite sure what prompted me to start flapping my bid card in the air. It could have been my two glasses of wine, or the excitement of the evening. It could be that it was my first auction, and I felt I needed a souvenir. Most likely though, it was a need for the Parenting Place to receive it's funding so I can continue to have my mornings there, surrounded with mamas that I get to have a conversation with, babe on my hip and sitting cross legged on the floor.