In elementary school you knew your best friend because she was the one who knew your favorite color and favorite Disney princess. She would spend the night and you would stay up until, I know it's crazy, MIDNIGHT, giggling over the fact that you were still awake.
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Honestly, I couldn't name one of
the backstreet boys, then or now.
I am so un-cool. |
In junior high it was the girl who knew which of the backstreet boys you thought was the cutest and that you wanted to be a veterinarian when you grew up. Slumber parties were still exciting but now you painted nails and talked about when your mom had said that you could start wearing make up. MASH was the name of the game and you kept hoping that if you stopped the circle just in time you could get it all, the mansion and the man of your dreams.
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| Summer daze |
In high school she is the one who knew what band you were into and that you wanted a pair of jncos for your birthday more than anything else in the world. You would never let a boy come between you and you spent everyday of the summer together.
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Don't worry mom and dad. I've got
it all planned out. What could go wrong? |
In college is was the girl who knew that you were re-thinking your major but didn't know how you were going to tell your parents and that you refused to get married before you graduated and wouldn't even think of having kids until after med school, or at least your masters program. She made the finals week caffeine runs and the post gym class ER visits by your side and told you to get a grip when you moaned that you were sure that you were going to die unmarried and alone.
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You tell me now you don't
like the name Conrad?!! |
Post-college it was the girl, soon to be your bridesmaid, who knew that your teaching career wasn't quite all you had dreamed it would be, that you still really loved it deep down inside somewhere, and what names you had picked out for your future (very future) children. You would call each other after a hard day at work and, if you were feeling crazy, head out to dinner and a movie, even on a work night. You would spend your time swapping work related horror stories and dreaming about the houses that you were going to buy someday.
But now, when so many of my best friends have become moms the things we know about one another are so far from where we started that it is a bit baffling to think of the scope of it.
What do I know about my best friends that is so vastly changed? Here is a short list of things I know now that I wasn't aware
existed to know about somebody five to ten years ago:
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Do you see that one child that
gave everyone the baby fever?
That's mine.
Kid count- 1 |
Did they deliver naturally, at home, or in a hospital with an epidural and/or a c-section? Do they spank, do time out, co-sleep, attachment parent, or 'cry it out'? Do they do cloth or disposable diapers, and where do they fall on the buying organically/humane spectrum. And when we all get together we discuss who is sleeping through the night, who is not, and the latest attempts at potty training as well as exchanging our worst diaper/vomit stories, each one more terrible than the last.
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We make mom-ing look good!
Kid count- 5 (baby fever jump) |
And do not for one moment think that these are not subjects that are as emotionally charged as the best Disney princess issue or that the winner of the "I got less sleep than you for longer" contest has any fewer bragging rights than the owner of those new jncos. The subjects may change but, in truth, the people don't, which is why, after all these years, you still keep them around. And, seriously, every mom needs someone to tell their gross out stories to, preferable over a meal, and only in part to make all the husbands cringe and vacate the room.
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They continue to multiply!
Kid count- 8 (1 not pictured)
Current count- 12 and 1 on deck |
Besides, you get extra points for the number of husbands that gag as they run.
