Last night Travis and I went on a date. We went to The Girl and the Goat in Chicago which was one of our bucket list Chicago restaurants. I’ll spare you the restaurant review and sum it up in one word – GO!

Anyway… while we were enjoying ourselves at dinner Travis said to me, “It took me seeing you happy again to realize how unhappy you really were.”   That comment has stuck with me.

So, I thought about what I’ve learned since I left my corporate job one month ago.

Here is the Top Ten:

1. I’m Exhausted – Taking care of a 3 year old and 5 year old all day is physically exhausting. I lost 8 pounds in just 3 weeks of running after these wee ones.

2. I Sleep Like a Rock – I have amazing and sometimes just plain bizarre dreams. The deep sleep is definitely a by-product of the physical exhaustion.

3. My Kids are Fun – My kids are truly a joy to hang out with. Alex loves to pretend to cook – he’s a little chef and right now he is making me “cupcapes”.  Zoe tells me that I’m the sweetest mommy in the whole world. They make my heart swoon.

4. It’s still about the little moments – The other day I spent an hour with Zoe reading her baby book to her. It was the best hour of the week. I got to relive her baby moments and experience her interest as she learned about her personality traits as a baby.   Things like her “snuffy” face she used to make and her first word (which was “wow”).

5. Stay at Home Moms are Cool – I really like the mommy friends I’ve made – Zoe’s friends’ moms are cool and part of me is sad that we are moving now. I think that if we stayed here longer as a stay at home mom I would have made some really great friends.

6. My Laugh has Changed – I laugh differently when I am truly happy – my friends in Zurich called it my “pregnancy laugh” (aptly named as it first presented itself when I was pregnant with Zoe). It’s one of those whole body laughs that I’m pleased to report is BACK.

7. Selling Our Stuff is Liberating – I’ve been selling everything in our house. It’s my job and I wake up every day excited to update Facebook posts, craigslist, etc to make my sales – which to date = $8,000 in sales! Not too shabby.

8. My name is Kelly and I am a Cellphone Addict. – I have a cell phone addition that I will need to address. Just not today. The first step is admitting I have a problem, right? I lost my phone for 2 hours one day and you would have thought I lost one of my kids. I called Travis while he was at work and I was crying like an idiot. Turned out the phone was underneath the one of the mats in the car. I thought I was losing my mind. Not good. So I’m adding “deal with cell phone addition” to my Project Pink Day things to do list.

9. I’m no Julia Child. Even though I theoretically have more time to cook an awesome dinner, I still don’t really have an interest in cooking. Maybe it’s because I sold all the equipment to cook with – or maybe that is just my excuse of the month!

10. This is only the beginning – I can’t wait for Travis to be done working so he can experience this and come up with his own list of learnings. And, come up with some more great memories as a family.