Everyone warns you about how much life changes with a baby. It’s really all I heard when I was pregnant. I get it! I’d scream in my head while smiling with my teeth at the well-meaning checkout lady at the grocery store. Now give me my ice cream sandwiches. Some aspects I felt completely prepared for, like knowing I wouldn’t be sleeping through the night “for a while” and the importance of a well-stocked diaper bag, yet other aspects surprise me every day. They are the little things no one mentioned and are surprising because I just didn’t consider myself that kind of person before Waverley came into this world. These are my top eleven surprises about myself as a parent:

11. Where did my free time go? Like really?
10. I will do anything to hear her laugh, which recently has included rapping “Bubble Butt”. (I am not good at rapping.)
9. I want to squeeze her face off at any given moment because she’s so precious my eyeballs burn when I look at her.
8. I have to remind myself that strangers could really not care any less what she looks like.
7. I feel an instant kinship with complete strangers who have babies around the same age as Waverley.
6. Grocery shopping solo is now a luxurious, relaxing event.
5. A two hour nap passes by in what seems like 20 minutes. (I thought I’d have time for so many things…)
4. Sleep deprivation is absolutely a form of torture.
3. My husband and I watch videos of her every night before we go to bed. It’s almost pathetic, except it’s not because of #9.
2. I forgot what my point was for number two because I’ve lost my mind.
1. I cry a little every time she goes up a diaper size.

Do you agree or were other aspects more of a surprise to you?