A Day Person

A quick update: I woke up today and broke the Monday spell with my bare hands. The record stopped Mondaying. No matter that today is actually Monday. No matter at all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Five days and five years ago, 7:00 a.m. came, and I did not get in my car. I did not sit in traffic. I did not stew about email that dinged in overnight. I did not hop on a conference call, pull on panty hose, or grab a coffee in that or any order.

It was the first day of the rest of my life. As a Day Person.

I had seen these Day People before. From the 11th floor window, I could see they were too big to be ants and too small to be cars. Some had strollers and some had friends and some had only themselves and their iPods to worry about.

"Where are they going at 10 a.m. on a Monday, for goodness sake?"
"Don't they have jobs?"
"What you wouldn't give to be strolling into Starbucks in your workout clothes at 11 a.m., am I right?"

That's what my corporate buddies and I used to say.

Secretly, we all wanted to be Day People. Some of us more than others. I might have wanted it the worst.

So when maternity leave finally came, I left. No one believed I'd really shut down my email or stop answering voicemail. "We know you. You can't stop," they said. But I did. COLD TURKEY. It took a couple of weeks, but by the time my son was born, I was clean.

I knew there would be plenty of stress-inducing piles to greet me when I returned. But for now. For these three months, every crunchy-leafed, pumpkin-spiced day was going to be mine. Mine to be a Day Person.

It was the best fall of my life (so far). Because I didn't take even one minute of it for granted. Sure, I was sleep deprived and hormonal. But I was with my baby, nursing. Not in the office, pumping. I walked to Old Town, picked up the dry cleaning, stuffed it in the jogger, and congratulated myself for getting one thing done that day. I changed Caed's diaper in the town square, and we sat on the dock with a double tall latte in one hand and waved hello to the ducks with the other.

It was just us. A Day Mommy with a Day Baby, being Day People.

Today I dropped off my Day Baby for his first day of Kindergarten.

I wore running shorts and stowed a jogger in the car. I traded smiles with several Mamas in their swooshing suit pants, as they held hands with their first-day-of-schoolers, knowing their next clickety-heeled step was toward the office.

Then I kissed Caed goodbye and with Dani's hand in mine, we left to run and play with friends on the trail and at the playground.
After several years of toggling between work and family, this is my first Autumn as a full-fledged stay-at-home mom. Not as a clock-is-ticking, FMLA-won't-last-forever Day Person. I am a permanent Day Person now.
And I already know. I already know what a blessing this is. Nobody has to tell me.

I think it might be--yes--it probably will be the best Fall yet.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
When was your best Autumn ever? Do you think this coming season has a chance to overthrow the reigning champ? To be the best?