Rollin, rollin, rollin ... (and a thought about missing 'firsts')

There are some things about being a working mother that gets missed. The "worst" are the firsts. Today, when I walked in from work close to 530pm, Ella tells me "Something happened today, but we're not going to tell you because you are going to freak out."

heh. Yeah, she said I was going to "freak out".

Before I'm even able to question it, Tom walks in the room (he is home about an hour before I am) and says "Karl rolled over today!".

Yay! Go Karl!

My mom watches the kids on Mondays (and they are in daycare Tues-Fri) and she had him laying on a blanket on the living room floor. He's been really happy laying on the ground lately - I realized the other day I always had him "in" something, be in a swing, bouncy seat or his little gym. I've been putting him on a blanket to find a very satisfied baby for a very long times. I had seen him rolling on his side, which I got a picture of the other day, but he picked today to do the full back to belly roll-over, complete with propping himself up on his elbows in triumph.

When I said missing his first are the "worst", I said so in quotes because honestly, it doesn't really bother me to have missed it. It's still exciting to me to have him reach a milestone and after all, the next time I see it will still be the first time for ME.

I knew I would be a working mom when I was pregnant with Ella. I didn't know I would actually ~like~ being a working mom until I was bored out of my mind not even half way into maternity leave. Even so, I thought about the aspect of missing a first and before it happened, it broke my heart to think about. It actually took me missing a milestone first to understand it wouldn't be the end of my world. Think about it - even if I was a stay at home mom and I saw a first during the day, my husband would most likely miss it because he'd be working to support us. So while the world of working moms cry about missing particular first, how come the world of working dads isn't calling it an epidemic?

Sure, being there for the very first time is a bonus. But seeing it later that day or even days later is still really exciting. I kind of liken it to knowing the gender before the baby is born. Hearing the "it's a boy!" at the big ultrasound is pretty exciting, right? Do you think it makes the actual birth any less exciting? I mean, does anyone who already knows the gender respond to the doctor pulling an actual ~baby~ out of your body and exclaiming "it's a boy!" with an "eh, yeah, I already know. lame." Of course not. It's still exciting as hell to get that baby boy laid on your chest.

Okay, I understand how some people want that to be a surprise at birth, but not much else pisses me off more than people who judge those who do find out the sex as ruining anything. In fact, I think finding out the gender at the big u/s (or other test) stretches out the excitement. I found out the genders early and I got to live on cloud nine twice - first making all the "it's a boy!" phone calls when we first found out and second, making all the "karl's here!" phone calls after the delivery. Hey, if someone else doesn't want to go this way, fine with me. But don't tell me I've ruined anything about my children's births. And lucky us, we get to bring home a baby in a gender specific outfit to a gender specific nursery. (heh, forgive me, but I ~hate~ gender neutral things! Now, I don't believe boys need to wear blue and girls need to wear pink - I cross the gender rules all the time. But all clothes/decor being yellow and green. Y.U.C.K. Personal opinion of course!)