Five on Friday

Since it's my LAST Five on Friday on maternity leave (if you can even still call it that after a year), I thought I'd share 5 things I learned during my 12 months home with my sweet girl!

1. You will NOT get bored. 

{We're always doing something!}

I remember the day after my mom left when Ella was born (she stayed with us for a week), I was like "What the heck am I going to do all day?" Well, friends, in case you've missed the last 51 weeks of my "Life with Ella" posts, we stay very busy! There's always some errands to run, or play groups to meet up with. Plus, Ella does spend quite a good deal of her day napping, so that takes up some time, too! I really have never gotten bored. Not once! 

2. Making mom friends is super easy. Really!

I think a big reason why I did not get bored is because of my mom friends! Some I knew before I had Ella, but the majority of the ladies I really didn't know until I was a mom. I've found that being a mom gives you a really strong common bond with other women. You always have something to talk about (for those of my friends who had babies older than Ella, thank you for letting me pick your brain about everything under the sun!) and if things do get awkward, you can always talk to your kid for a second, ha!

3.  You will wear 10% of your clothes 100% of the time.

I heard somewhere that the average person wears 20% of their clothes 80% of the time. That average person is not Mindy on maternity leave. I am pretty sure this past year, I have rotated between about 12 different shirts, a few pairs of jeans, and leggings. Oh, and work out clothes (note to self: must invest in some Lululemon if I stay home for a year ever again). I do not wear dresses, skirts, statement necklaces, dangly earrings or scarves. I noticed this morning that my work pants have dust on them. DUST you guys. That is just sad. I am looking forward to wearing some different things once I go back to work, but am not excited that leggings are not considered pants at my school. 

4. You will never sleep in again.

Ok, so people did tell me this, but I didn't really think about it. But, kids are creatures of habit. Once they get to sleeping through the night (which, luckily Ella did very early on), they will still wake up by 7-8AM (or earlier, if you're really "fortunate"). They don't care if it's a weekend, they don't care if you had too much wine the night before, they are getting up at their regular time! So even on the weekends, even after too many glasses of wine, my butt is up at 7:15ish every morning. Sometimes I bring Ella in bed and we all fall back to sleep, or very rarely Ella will sleep until 8AM. But I definitely could not tell you the last time I slept later than 8:30 uninterrupted from the night before. 

5. You will never want to go back to work.

{This is how Ella feels about me going back to work!}

I knew I wasn't going to go back at the end of the school year last year, but I thought for sure I'd be bored out of my mind and ready to go back in August (see: #1). WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. Not only does Ella get more fun by the day, but I've become so used to my stay-at-home-mom lifestyle that I really do not even remember what it's like to pack my lunch, be away from my house for 8+ hours, and not go to the bathroom whenever I want. Also I should mention that my worst days with Ella are 10 times better than my best days I've had with my class. I feel like returning to work after maternity leave is like ripping off a band-aid, and my band-aid's been on for a whole year. It is going to HURT!

5 and a half. Totally unrelated, but I wanted to mention: Happy Belated Birthday to my dad (yesterday), Happy Birthday to my dirty 30 friend, Dana (today), and Happy Early Birthday to my father-in-law (on Sunday)! So many good people born this time of year...including a very special someone on Tuesday! But that's a whole other post...stay tuned!