Bry and I moved to Forest nearly eight years ago. Neither of us growing up in a place much different than here. Forest was our half-way point between jobs, friends and family.
It was hard to find commonality in our new hometown when neither of us grew up here, played sports here or worked here. We weren't just around the corner from our close friends to be able to stop in for a drink or slide into mom's for dinner on a weeknight and it could sometimes feel lonely.
Having a child a few years later gave us something in common with others around us. Becoming parents opened a gate to new friendships.
Ryker was a few months old when we ventured out to an Infant Massage session at the local early years centre. I connected with a mom there who invited me to a weekly play group she was part of and she has since become a really good friend.
Visits to the early years centre and our weekly get togethers formed a great support system for us new moms. We compared parenting notes, snacked and laughed while the babies laid next to one another chewing on toys and stealing soothers. Most importantly, we got out of the house to spend time with other women experiencing the same struggles and at the same time a new overwhelming love that comes with motherhood and I think that created a sense of sanity and security for us.
We spent a lot of that first year of our babies lives together, watching them grow from swaddled and sleeping to running around and everything in between.
We don't all see each other as often as we'd like anymore now that the babies are preschoolers. Some moms go back to work and families welcome more babies and days get hectic. When we do get together it's amongst this crazy, beautiful chaos of scattered toys, sticky fingers, racing little feet, laughing, crying, hitting and hugs.
It's not as often, but I feel we're still all connected by a bond we built as we came into this new skin. A bond built during that new, beautiful and scary state of motherhood. I'll always be grateful for that support system and these friendships.
Jan. 13, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment