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What Are You Grateful For?

I am grateful to be a guide to and encourager of this new life, to witness the acquisition of language, to learn how a small human learns, to observe the world with new eyes becuase I watch my daughter observe the world with new eyes.

I am grateful for my husband, who has been (and continues to be) a CO-parent. I am grateful for all the high-protein meals he made for me when I was pregnant and could only manage to come home from work and crawl into bed due to mind-bending exhaustion. I would not have eaten properly without him.

I am grateful that my baby was born without inhaling meconium and without any other problem for which she would need a NICU since we had her unexpectedly at home. I am grateful for terbutaline sulfate.

I am grateful I survived my birth and that I had my husband there to make sure I got the help I needed. I am grateful for lessons my shocking birth experience taught me.

I am grateful for the friends who came by to visit me when I was frazzled, for the lactation consultant who saved my breastfeeding relationship, for friends who kindly brought us dinner when we were so exhausted and overwhelmed.

I am grateful for my parents and my husband’s parents (and our siblings) who have been supportive. Since this happened recently, I’ll single out my father for special thanks that he tells us from time to time we are doing a good job raising our daughter. It’s really nice to hear. I’ll single out my in-laws to say a special thanks for watching the baby while we went out on a date. I’ll single out my mother for saying yes 99% of the time I ask her to babysit.

I am grateful for the daycare provider who lovingly cares for Nugget 3-4 times per week and is, to me, like Nugget’s third parent. Often, Nugget comes home doing or knowing something new, and I have M to thank for this.

I am grateful for my online and local friends with whom I’ve been able to discuss with blatant honesty my feelings about motherhood, the plight of working mothers, and any other number of baby-related details that would put most non-mothers to sleep in about 1 minute.

I am grateful for my town, my house and my neighbors. I love the size of our house. I love that we’ve worked to make it beautiful and peaceful for us.

I am grateful for thrift stores and freecycle, which have allowed us to provide our daughter with fun toys without spending much money.

I am grateful for cloth diapers, which help us be kind to the environment and save money.

I am grateful to Super Baby Foods for teaching me to make cleaning products that will not harm me, my child or the environment. After using a line to dry our clothes exclusively for 5 months, which I enjoyed, I have new appreciation and gratitude for a clothes dryer. We just got one 2 days ago, and it’s lovely to have a pile of warm, dry clothes.

I am grateful for my childhood friends and how we’ve managed to stay friends even if we don’t always agree about everything. I appreciate how we can disagree and still be respectful of other people’s choices. I appreciate their cooking and patience and funny jokes!

I am grateful for all of the jobs I’ve had. Each job gave me skills that I’ve been able to apply to following my passions — such as starting a website geared towards parents. I don’t know how else I would have learned such a wide variety of skills.

I am grateful for all of my family even if I have not singled out each of them here. And this, really, is just the tip of the iceberg. Happy Thanksgiving!

This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 at 7:07 pm and is filed under Holidays, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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