Last week at this time, I was in LA – spending my first night (ever) away from Zoe. It was the first time since BZ (before-Zoe) that I flew alone, and the entire travel experience was so mellow and easy compared to my recent flying experiences. I didn’t have to worry about schlepping and getting through security a carseat, stroller, diaper bag and oodles of other important items, and I didn’t have to worry about watching or entertaining or caring for anyone in the airport. I could just sit and *be*; I actually read a magazine and just sat there, doing nothing. It was nice… but it was also a little lonely.<\/p>\n
I surprised myself by missing my little travel companion (and the big one, too, of course) as much as I did. I couldn’t help but watch the little babies around me in the airport and think of Zoe; I spent a long time watching one father struggle with his very young, very unhappy baby in the airport – and instead of feeling relieved that I wasn’t in his shoes, I actually felt a little envious. I even felt that way on the plane, when the baby wouldn’t stop screaming. Old Michelle would have been extremely annoyed, but on this trip, I just smiled at the thought of comforting my own little (well, big) baby. (I also made sure to give the dad a few “I-know-what-you’re-going-through\/don’t-worry-about-it” looks. I really felt for him!)<\/p>\n
I’m fond of saying that motherhood hasn’t changed me *that* much, but experiences like this tell me otherwise. I know traveling will never be quite the same again, and I know I will forever feel a bit of loss when I’m away from Zoe. But I also know that’s okay – I just feel pretty lucky to be able to feel like this!<\/p>\n
-M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week at this time, I was in LA – spending my first night (ever) away from Zoe. It was the first time since BZ (before-Zoe) that I flew alone, and the entire travel experience was so mellow and easy compared to my recent flying experiences. I didn’t have to worry about schlepping and getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-18fifteen-to-sixteen-months"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zoe.browdy.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}