I had a great Sunday just spending time with my daughter. We had a city playdate just her and I. It truly was a wonderful day...except my brain tagged along.
It started during brunch. Everytime I know I'm going to a restaurant I pack some sort of entertainment activity like crayons, a coloring book, you know the usual so I can entertain my kid for maybe 10 minutes. We ordered our food and it took FOREVER. My daughter was as well behaved as you can ask for a 2 1/2 year old, but she was getting the wiggles. Then it hit me. Ay No! No puede ser. I FORGOT! MIER...COLES!
I dug through the 20 different pockets of my bag (oh is that where my lipstick went?) and found A marker. WooHoo! I asked the waitress to bring any paper that she may have just to entertain my daughter. Now you have to understand that almost anywhere else in the country if you go to a restaurant with a child at 11am you'll typically get crayons and at least a white sheet of paper. But we live in New York and in this particular case we were in the city, where A LOT of restaurants don't necesarrily cater to toddlers. Hey, I get it.
Anyway, I resort to giving her a paper napkin. She's drawing, I'm trying to sip my margarita and the food arrives, great! Crap, are those nuts? I FORGOT to ask if the dish had nuts (I ALWAYS ask cause my daughter's allergic to a bunch of stuff including nuts). The waitress sees my face (doesn't quite undertand the big deal of the nuts, um hello EPIPEN) and sends the dish back. Oh No. Tic. Toc. Tic. Toc. 30 minutes/40 minutes is about as much time as I have before the toddler meltdown.
We resort to paper napkin number 2 (the waitress never brought back any paper) and I continue to sip my margarita. I get caught up in my cabeza and I hear, "Mama, look!" I turn my head and boy do I see it. Marker ALL OVER my kid's face (washable thank God)! I dig through my bag again...Ay No! Que me pasa? I FORGOT the wipes. Forgetting wipes is like forgetting your headphones when you go to the gym (when you do decide to go). MIER...COLES or as my dad would say SAMAMABISH!
I resort to the WHITE cloth napkin, dip it in water and wipe my daughter's face. Food arrives and the waitress gets a glimpse of the now GREEN napkin and fakes a smile. I know lady, whatever. We devour our meal, pay, and make it to the bathroom before we leave. Good, glad that's over.
We walk for about 3 blocks towards the playground and I see a really cute store window that I want to snap a picture of with my phone. MY PHONE?! F$%K!! I FORGOT I left my phone in the bathroom (cause I had it in my back pocket and didnt want it to fall in the toilet so I took it out). Deep breath as I mutter, "Donde esta mi cabeza?" Get to the restaurant and the phone is still there, (what a relief).The rest of the day went great.
It's funny (or not) how much our brains change after we have a child. I personally FORGET a lot of things but my brain has evolved in other ways. I am an amazing multi-tasker, I get so much done in little time, I am so much more productive now after being a mom than before I was a mom. I am better at analyzing situations and reading people. It's like our brains purposely change so we can deal with all the mamá stuff.
Don't hate your mommy brain, embrace it. As long as you can remember to turn the stove off, what your kid looks like, I'd say remember their names but I call my daughter Hope sometimes (my dog's name) so that one doesn't count, and that it happens to many of us, you're not alone. So the mommy brain never left but the kickass mamå brain sure did arrive.
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