I think it’s something all mothers — all parents, really — go through: that realization that we aren’t free any more. That process where the unnecessary gets weeded out (or, at the very least, put on a “I’ll get to you in ten years or so” pile) was so healthy, though. I gave up many things, but I gained many excellent things (most of which are embodied in my daughter) and regained, for example, the library. And the joy of children’s books. And writing time, because I made that my number one non-family priority.

It’s interesting to me that things I used to take for granted–movies, exercise, time to just think–have been so easy to let slide since Drake came into our lives. I have sometimes unfairly resented him for this. More recently, I am grateful. Limited time encourages fierce prioritization, which in turn leads to a life more full with better things, one of which is absolutely little Drake.

When Meg was about six months old, I left the house to see a movie on my own for the first time since… well, since college. (And it was Pirates of the Caribbean.) We are fortunate in that we have grandparents who babysit often, but even with that there are often so many other things that need to be done that movies fall by the wayside.

(I didn’t do much better than you at the Oscarwatching stakes, though — no Spider-Man 2, but I did see Kinsey and Finding Neverland, mostly through sheer dogged determination because I refused to miss them. Good “artsy” movies rarely stick around here long.)