Hi Zipper, long time no see

I love shopping. It's such a cliche, but I do. Aside from the accidental glimpse of my underwear-clad behind in the changing mirror and parting with my money at check-out, I love everything else about shopping. Shopping while pregnant was pretty fun when I was 5 and 6 months pregnant and had a cute baby bump, but around 7 months, things got way less entertaining. Suddenly, I was completely limited to one or two stores and PS why are almost all maternity clothes these days in solid colors? It's like they think that pregnant women have no interest in patterns (or fabrics other than jersey for that matter). I more or less stopped shopping and started sporting the yes-I've-worn-this-outfit-everyday-this-week-what-are-you-looking-at? look.

All of this is to say that today, I went shopping. Jeff and I made a plan for today that he would take Edie from 10:30-2:30 and I would take her from 2:30-6:30. At first, I thought about hanging around the house and cleaning, but it suddenly dawned on me that I was desperate to not wear my elastic waist jeans. I wanted REAL jeans. And yes, I have about 5 pairs of super cute (and not cheap) pre-pregnancy jeans, but dude, those jeans are not fitting any day this week and how long post-pregnancy is it appropriate to only wear elastic waist pants? I decided to invest in one or two nice pairs of pants that make me feel human again until I can squeeze myself back into my old pants.

Hanyvays. Today, I went to the mall and I wandered through all the old shops that I used to like to go to and I tried on my first pair of pants with zippers and buttons in about 8 months. Maybe 9. And while I am not terribly in love with my current size, it felt GOOD. My friend Heidi joined me for moral support and we even had time for a grown-up lunch in a restaurant where I ate with two hands and didn't feel panicked about eating as fast as possible in case Edie started crying midway through and I had to go 2 more hours before eating the other half.

And perhaps the best part of my 4 hour hiatus from full-time Motherhood? I actually had time to miss Edie. I walked back in the front door at 2:30 and haven't really taken my eyes off her since.