So, my last employment contract ended almost a month ago.  Ever since, I’ve been a Stay At Home Mom.   However, for a stay-at-home-mom, I somehow manage to hardly ever stay home!

Although I hope to be promoted to a WAHM (work at home mom), I am relishing this guilt-free time at home with my son.  This is the best job I’ve ever had!  It’s challenging, but I prefer to be the one navigating the challenges.

My days are completely different than when I was working.  No day is the same and each is an adventure in its own way.  We decide, together, what we will be doing.  I sometimes pretend that I am in control, but it’s a collaborative effort; my plans can easily be derailed by a bad mood, fever, or extra long nap.

I take my job very seriously.  It’s a hefty job description (for which few would qualify if we needed to apply).  I have been entrusted to:

• create and maintain a clean, healthy, safe, and comfortable environment and shelter
• provide healthy nourishment, health care, and medical attention
• teach an impressionable mind (which often seems to resemble a sponge) to: speak, walk, go potty, eat, play, bathe, discern right from wrong, respect, love, colour, draw… the list is endless and will keep growing – read, write, DRIVE. ack!
• nurture, love, and encourage the growth of a kind, respectful, and considerate inhabitant of this world in which we live

It’s a tall order, let me tell you.  But, I embrace it – although I do struggle with the clean environment part. I’m not exactly a domestic goddess .

The rewards are beyond measure and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be a mother and spend my days with this human being who just may be teaching me more than I am him.

Alright, so today, I had to take Q to get new passport photos taken.  I had a window of 2 hours within which to get the pics taken and get them to the passport office.  Sounds like a lot of time?  Did I mention Q is a year old?  Yup.

Rewind: When I got his original pics taken, they forgot to charge me, but of course I was honest and told them.  Fatal flaw?  Perhaps.  Nonetheless, it cost me about the same amount for the pics as the passport.

Lucky for me, the photos were guaranteed, so I didn’t have to pay twice, being that the originals were rejected.  But, get this: I went to pick up the new photos and they credited my card for the amount I had paid last time.  That’s it.  I got them for free!  Not only that, but I ended up with 2 poses and the original (because they realized that it was too cute for me not to have).

Unfortunately, because of a variety of technical difficulties, it took 1.5 hours to process the new photos.    1.5 hours of my precious 2!  I got them at 11:27 a.m. and the passport office closed at noon.  I had exactly 33 minutes to get from the photo place to the passport office (in a neighbouring city).  Not likely.

As it turns out, I was at the passport office at 11:41 and out of there by 11:52 (photos accepted).  I question how that is  humanly possible.  I didn’t even need the toys that I remembered to pack this time!

Time must be an illusion.

This afternoon I had to go to the Passport office to get my one year old (Q) a passport.  Now, he doesn’t actually need one, but I’m doing it anyway – mostly because I had thought he needed one and had already gotten the photos done.

So, he and I set off in the late afternoon.  Late afternoon on a Friday.  To the passport office.  An hour before it closed.  Good timing, mommy!  Talk about a recipe for disaster.

Once there, we waited for close to an hour (which is an eternity in the life of a toddler).   He got restless really fast.  Lucky for me, I had a stray bottle cap (he hasn’t even used a bottle in about 6 months) and the lid to a Tupperware.  Insisting the cap was a “ball,” he threw it clear across the room. Way to think ahead, mommy! 
Add ingredient to recipe for disaster.  Shake.

Finally, our number was called and I was saved by a nice man named John (so I thought).  At the moment I reached the counter, Q decided that he’s had enough of the stroller and started screeching (that his new thing; we’re so proud).  Panicking, I took him out and held him. 
Add ingredient to recipe for disaster. Shake.

After about 5 minutes of distraction, John informed me that Q’s picture has been rejected because it appears that he is “glowing.” How angelic.  I have to get new ones and go back.  Then, John added “you can just bring the pictures when you come back.  You don’t need to bring him.”  Ouch.  Burn.

Repeat tomorrow.