Life After Baby Changes Your Perspective

Having a new baby in the house has been wonderful and at the same time has completely changed my life. I recently left my little one at home for the evening to join some of my girlfriends for a night out. It had been more than a year since I had gone out without the baby and even longer since I had gone out and had a drink. Needless to say I was really looking forward to this evening. 
I wanted to look my best since I had finally lost the baby weight and wanted to put on something that did not require easy nursing access and did not need to be amendable to my horrific nursing bra. I opted for a cute and colorful dress and a fierce pair of platforms. I loved my high heel shoes and platforms, but I did not think they were a smart choice when I was carrying around my nugget so they had not seen life outside my closet in a while. I was so excited; I made myself a cosmo and waited for the girls to pick me up and the other dads to arrive for their man night of babysitting. 
Conveniently another one of our friends found out she was expecting so she volunteered to be our designated driver for the evening. I expected the night to be like the nights before I got pregnant, dancing, drinks, bar hopping and staying out to all hours of the evening before a final stop at Taco Bell for a late night snack. This evening went a little differently. 
We started by leaving the kids home with our hubbies and headed to dinner. Dinner was great we had some drinks and talked to our newly prego friend about what was ahead of her. When we were not talking about pregnancy and delivery we were talking about our own babies and what they were doing. At one point we even took out our phones to share pictures of the kids with our waiter and each other. 
After dinner we headed to a large outdoor bar. We figured this was a good option because it was nice weather and this place was huge so it would not be super crowded and loud. While ordering us a round of drinks at the bar I had a gentleman approach me and ask if I would buy him a drink, I quickly replied "not tonight!" The man then told me that I did not need to be so rude he was only kidding. I did not think I was rude but apologized if he thought I was. He went on to ask me what we were doing out tonight, when I told him we were celebrating a girl's night out without the kids, he looked perplexed. He then accused me of lying, and I pointed to the ring on my finger and showed him the screen saver on my phone which was of course a picture of my daughter. He than apologized and said he was only 24 so he did not think to look for those things. 
I grabbed our drinks and headed back to the table and told the girls what happened. His final comment still lingered in my head, he was "only 24". How old did he think I was, just because I had a baby and a husband I was automatically put into the old box? After all I was "only" 26. It was then that I realized how different things really were.
Our girls' night out, even without the kids was still all about them. We had talked about them all night, shared their pictures and even worried a little bit about what they were doing with their unsupervised fathers. My life had changed dramatically without me even realizing it; we all had turned from young twenty-something's to mature women raising families. Do not get me wrong, we still had a good time, we laughed, danced, even hula-hooped; our night just ended a little earlier and without anyone passing out or getting sloppy. Those days are over and a new chapter has begun.