What Makes an 'Exciting' Day for the New Mum?

These days I'm pretty content with sitting at home in my (or Joe's) oversized tshirts and a pair of shorts. A messy - and I mean resembling homeless-looking bun is my signature look, although this is mainly for comfort reasons due to post-pregnancy hair moulting. Comfort... The biggest factor in my life currently. It's a bitter sweet feeling as admittedly it is pretty liberating looking like shit but feeling great about yourself, but then I do really look awful 9/10 times. Pregnancy taught me that! Having said that, there are moments when it hits me and I quickly slap on half a pound of make up and, well, I 'neaten up' my messy bun because no amount of glam is worth constantly picking your moulting mane out of a baby's hands for fear they'll eat a hairbrush worth in less than 60 seconds! (It really is that bad) so I stick to my bun and love its practicality! Funniest time so far: Tania coming over, and before saying hi, saying "oh my god, are you okay? It hit me then that my 'au naturelle' appearance made me look ill/upset/unwell. Oops. #mumlife, I guess.

So when I realised just how excited by a day or two per week of making effort I was, it suddenly dawned on me just how much my life has changed! What other mundane scenarios in life do I enjoy now that my choices are limited (for now anyway) ?

Food shopping - but the ones where I go alone, not constantly talking to my child who has no idea whether we 'should get broccoli or bananas first'. Nevertheless, I persist in discussing our weekly food plans and shopping strategy with her in a desperate attempt to 'entertain' her - or avoid a scream-feast! So, on my own, food shopping is great. I can browse books, choose a bottle of wine based on flavours not just what might be on offer, I can actually think about what I need to buy and come home not thinking 'for fucks sake I've forgotten a load of stuff yet again!' These menial tasks genuinely used to feel like a chore, but for some reason they're a huge part of my relaxation time now! My usual hobbies are just not great fun. I recently went running, instead of worrying about my pace as I usually do, I found myself worrying about Amelie's head bopping around and her comfort levels, or 'annoying bumps' in the road, or what would happen if I burst a tyre on the buggy. None of that is enjoyable!

Yet another thing the childless version of me used to enjoy were long sunny days out. Be it drinking a few on the beach or in a pub garden, or going for super long bike rides or walks - I loved being outdoors in the sunshine. Nowadays, I'm found grumbling at the sun and consider clouds my best friends, all because the sun is not advisable with young babies. That, and she won't keep her sun hat on for peanuts!

I'm not sure if my new found love of having a day at home stems from post-baby thinking or the fact we now have our own house, but I have zero problems with staying indoors and having no plans! If we fancy lazing under a blankie all morning then why the hell cant we? If we just go for a chill in the garden and not a walk, who cares? I'm so fortunate to be able to spend all day everyday of the week with my daughter that we have all the time to make plans, sometimes it's fun just pulling silly faces or making bizarre noises at each other. Before I know it, we've spent the best hour  or two laughing at each other and thoroughly enjoying every second.

Deliveries are another thing. These tedious time-wasters were to my pre-mum self a serious burden! It was always the same, I'd order something, sack off the idea of sitting at home all day waiting for a possible delivery between 9-6 (seriously who has that much free time, might as well go to a shop and buy it in the first place) and so id miss the delivery and have to go to the holding office anyway. Nowadays, I might even hope I miss a delivery so I'd have something I needed to do. However, parcels now provide me an opportunity to engage in adult conversation, with the post man - who I've got to know and is a pretty quirky kind of nice guy!

I guess it goes hand-in-hand then that I love eBay. My eBay addiction started when I discovered that 28 baby vests could be purchased for £1.50! I thought I was in for a bidding war and found myself the [very proud] high bidder of so many items for a gob smacking low price. Bidding is great fun but so is selling. eBay, thank you.

Sometimes when I have a spare second, I stop and think about these rubbish things I now find fun and I wonder why. Then I wonder how long it'll take for these considerably crappy things to become dull again. Oh, motherhood...