The Grass Is Always Greener

We live in the super hot desert to the east of Los Angeles. During the summertime The Boy and I get out and about in the evening and early morning, remaining mostly housebound between 10am and 5-6pm.

Two years ago, swollen, heavily pregnant and incredibly cranky I noticed very little of the outside world.

One year ago I observed a reealllly pregnant woman using the relative cool of the mornings and evenings to walk a toddler - a year, maybe a year and a half older than The Boy - and a baby/toddler - approximately the same age as The Boy. She was huge, much bigger than I was when pregnant with The Boy, and struggling with maneuvering a trike and a stroller beyond the bulge of her massive belly.

She's now a svelte, gorgeous thing who I look on with massive amounts of envy instead of the pity I felt last year. Here I am, my gimpy self wanting another baby but barely able to manage the daily tyranny of The Boy whilst this gorgeous creature manages 3 kids under 4 with such aplomb. Grrr...

Anyhoo, this morning The Boy and I were out for our daily coffee with Grandpa. They had gone off for their walk/daily meet-n-greet when I saw my super-fertile, super-capable neighbor pull into the parking lot of the neighboring supermarket. She loaded up the two youngest into a stroller while the oldest, who's still pretty young, held onto her hand.

They ran into the store and re-emerged a few minutes later with a case of diapers and a tiny shopping bag. She strapped the kids into their respective car seats then turned to her stroller and diapers. Just then a guy was passing by in front of me and I saw him look around as if something concerned him. I then heard what was concerning him; a baby crying. Maybe even the cacophony of several baby's crying. He moved along then my thin, pretty, supermom neighbor looked up at me. At first I thought she was trying to place my face from afar but then, as her head lowered kind of dejectedly, I realized the look on her face was something else. Was she envying me ? Was me sitting there enjoying my cup of coffee in peace while my dad walked my only son enviable? It just might have been.

So now here I am, hiding from the heat with my one and only Boy, appreciating all that I have and harboring a new found respect for our neighbor.