Glowing

I had a friend send me a picture that popped up on her Facebook feed today with the title indicating I was "glowing".   I looked at the picture and recognized the outfit straight away as one I wore during the winter months I was pregnant with my son.  That made the title of the picture including the word glowing make sense.

I don't think in all my years I have ever glowed.   I'm not sure what that descriptive word means other than to intimate pregnancy but I can tell you from my perspective, I never felt like I was glowing.   Not that pregnancy wasn't a good time.  I had easy pregnancies, only vomiting a single time, that being during the labor process with my son.  The medications they were giving me to induce labor that wasn't progressing as quickly as might be desirable made me nauseated.  It was a necessary thing given that my membrane had ruptured and since my son was delivered healthy, it was well worth all the fuss.

The picture did bring back memories though.   I wore the pictured oversized sweater dress quite a lot during my pregnancy on account of its comfortableness.  That and the whole pregnancy/clothing situation.   You're pregnant for only so many months.  For close to half of them, you can wear clothing already in your closet.  It isn't until the latter portion of gestation that you need modified clothing to accommodate your burgeoning middle section.  Here's the rub though: as soon as you have the baby, the clothes you bought only a few months ago are now too large for you.

So either you invest heavily in a wide array of clothing that may even cross seasons so you can look fashionable during the pregnancy, or you buy a few things and re-wear them for the short time until the baby comes, and then pass them on to the next friend you have of similar size who becomes pregnant.   In my case, I intended to have two children, and by great good fortune I was able to get pregnant again quickly, so I got double use out of my clothes.   Still, I didn't have that many options.

This is why when I saw the picture today, in the grey, dumpy-looking sweater dress with the word 'glowing' in the caption, I knew exactly when the picture was taken.  I was also wearing glasses in the picture, which took me back a bit.   I've had eye surgery, replacing my natural lenses with artificial ones, and haven't worn glasses in a number of years.   It seems like I've always been without glasses at this point, the memory of glasses a long time in the past.   And yet it wasn't so many years ago that I wore glasses daily, and did so for many years.

I don't miss the glasses, and I definitely don't miss the pregnancy clothes.  Being pregnant though was a joy.   I don't yearn to be pregnant again, but I have fond memories of the times I was pregnant with both children.

The Big Boy Update: My son came home from school today, happy it was the weekend because he could have screen time.  Only he couldn't because he lost privileges due to behavior this week.  One of the incidents was him taking and hiding his Switch in the bed with him for multiple nights.  I am the hammer when it comes to parenting in my family whereas my husband is a bit kinder.   When I told my husband about the Switch hiding, he discussed it with my son and took away an hour of screen time today as punishment.   I had meant to tell my husband not to mention anything to my son, instead waiting for him come to us, asking where his switch was, only to have the consequence delivered at that point, letting him know he would be missing screen time for much longer because he had broken our confidence, knowing full well he was breaking the rules.   Next week the rules are different.   Next week they are more strict.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter apparently woke her cousin, Sydney, up at five this morning, asking if she wanted to play.   It is no surprise that now, at nine o'clock tonight, my daughter can barely keep her eyes open.   They have created a special club and asked me if I could help them with a ladder in the closet in the bedroom in the basement where they are maintaining their club base.   Richard arrived to visit overnight and has been told about the club in the closet in the room he's staying in.   He said he's okay with that.  He's a parent himself and is not bothered in the least by little children and their adventures.