Becoming one of Them

I could never understand why parents could and would suddenly lose their own identity upon having a child.  I would see their Facebook posts: baby pictures, toddler quotes, child achievements, lather, rinses, repeat...and while I would enjoy seeing those things, a part of me would be thinking, "yes, but what did YOU do today?  What's new with YOU?  It's YOUR Facebook page, not your child's." 

I remember going to a bonfire once, and literally every person there was a parent, besides me.  All conversations revolved around their children.  I had nothing to add, and again, would think, where is the person inside this parent?  Do they have interests and lives beyond their children?

And now I have Lily.  And I look at my own Facebook page, scattered with baby pictures and videos and cutesy things she did, and open up my photo stream on my iPhone and see nothing but Lily and I think, "Oh Lord, I have become one of Them."

And I get it now.  I really do.  This little human is the clearest example of a miracle I have ever seen.  Would I rather share the story of the plumber who came to our house smelling like an ashtray and leaving muddy bootprints all over my floors?  Or would I rather talk about how my special little snowflake decided she liked another family better than us at a recent basketball game, and spent a half hour sitting with them, charming them, and playing with the mom's scarf without so much as glancing over at us?  (It was adorable, BTW.)  The answer is clear.

So I started this blog.  This gives me an outlet to talk about my daughter all I want without boring people.  If you are reading this you apparently want to be bored.  Why didn't I think of this 9 months ago??