Who are these people?

Adam and I recently had the opportunity to go away to Boston for a weekend.  We had fifth row seats to see James Taylor at Tanglewood.  You may be familiar with how I feel about James Taylor.  Put him up high on the "Things I love" list with grapefruit, the noise of children singing, Camp Pinewood, and the YMCA.  Swoon-worthy.

Despite a trip to the ER for Mastitis at Mass General Hospital (seriously?!), we had a relaxing, enjoyable adventure.  When it's just the two of us, we will remark, "wow, this is sort of what it was like to be without kids".  Footloose and fancy-free.  We watched people that looked like retirees in sleepy Lenox and pondered what that must be like to have all the time in the world to work in your garden, or read books without pictures.  When you have enough sleep, enough money, and enough clean laundry done to get dressed each morning with a fresh pair of undies.  When you never run the risk of puncturing your bare foot with a lego.

But I think I've learned something in this parenting adventure we're on.  Those people you see in the picture?  They're gone.  They can't reproduced on a date, or a weekend away.  We are forever, irreversibly changed.  And there's nothing sad about it.  We would never trade a basket full of clean clothes, a night out, or an evening of grown-up fun for our little dudes.

Because those people did not think that too many cocktails would not go over well with a 6am cheery wake-up call.  Those people did not calculate the minutes spent out with the price of a babysitter.  Those people had time for the gym, shopping, and eating out on a Tuesday.  Those people had no idea how FULL life would feel with kids, how lively, how lovely, how messy and how fulfilling.  They were clueless, weren't they?

We could try to be those people once in a blue moon for a night out, but it's just a ruse.

Because whether the kids spend a weekend with grandparents or a night with a babysitter, our babies are always right there, in the front of our minds.  While enjoying a hike through the Berkshires, we talked about what Wylie was thinking, doing, or saying.  We talked about missing him, and how amazing we think he is.  We giggled about funny family memories and stories that these three years have made for us.

Back to those retirees in the garden (or our own parents, for that matter).  I don't think they're footloose and fancy free.  Or maybe I think they're only 1/2 footloose and fancy free.  They have time in the garden and never slip on a melted popsicle on the floor in the kitchen.  They probably never get to work and realize they have play-doh stuck to their pants.  It's been years since they said, "if you take your underwear off at dinner and moon people, you CANNOT have dessert".  But I'm guessing their minds are still filled with those old stories and memories.

And I bet their babies are still at the front of their minds.