When you become a parent certain things in your life that you used to take for granted go flying out the window. Like sleep. Some of these things (like a lack of sleep) you expect to happen, and recognise that for a period of time things will be bad, and then improve - but never be quite the same ever again.
Some things you expect to change but not necessarily be as bad as the reality. For example: the ability to have a shower every day - maybe it will become every second day you think to yourself. However, once that kid is born and gets older you may find yourself getting to day three and thinking to yourself "gee, when did I last have a shower?" or that you can no longer have a long relaxing shower without some kid yelling for you, or best yet - that you never get to shower alone again.
We are living with my in-laws at the moment while we renovate, and since my oldest boy Jeffrey must have been a seagull in his past life (and is a food scavenger if you didn't get the reference), my father-in-law has now discovered that eating his breakfast by himself is a thing of the past. No matter how hard he tries, he ends up having to share his breakfast. So now he makes twice as big a bowl of cereal for when Jeffrey inevitably comes along with his own spoon and sits alongside. Which is super cute too by the way.
One of the things that I took for granted before becoming a parent was (and excuse the crudeness of this next part), the ability to go to the toilet all by myself. What luxury the days before children seem! Where I could go, sit down and do my business without having to concern myself with what the kids were up to. Or best yet, without having to have them join me. When Jeffrey was little I used to be able to plonk him in his activity centre for a few minutes to have this precious alone time in the toilet, but of course as he got bigger that was no longer acceptable. So I'd bring in some of his toys to play with. One time it was 'that time of the month' and of course I had a box of tampons on the floor in the toilet. Well, this was discovered by Jeffrey and BOOM - new game! Taking tampons in and out of the box was apparently hilariously fun. Take them away - make baby cry.
So now I keep a basket of tampons in my toilet at all times. When I can't get the kids to keep themselves occupied while I go to the toilet, they get to take them in and out of the boxes and basket, sort colours - all kinds of fun! Truth be told, it is now at the point where the minute I go to the toilet Matthew comes barrelling in to claim the basket for play time.
So just when you thought tampons were just for monthly use, you find that they can be used on a daily basis... To occupy your kids and have a few minutes peace on the toilet!
