Wedding Rings and Unicorns*

The times, they are a-changin’.

My darling wee one has been up partying these past two nights. On Sunday night she decided to wake up and play at 1am and didn’t crash again until almost 4am. Last night she woke up at the same time, but thankfully I got her back down closer to 2:30.

While she shimmied her way around her crib blowing raspberries on the bars, I had a lot of time to sit in my rocker as I kept her company. To try and keep myself awake, I found myself scrolling through the Facebook news feed on my phone.

As I scrolled past photos of couples and babies, it hit me–my generation has officially entered another phase in our lives. In previous years, the week after Hallowe’en was time for many of my friends to post pictures and stories of their wild adventures celebrating the day. My Facebook feed would be full of photos of my friends at parties and bars, decked out in tiny Hallowe’en costumes.

After all, why be a unicorn when you can be a sexy unicorn? (ha.)

This year, I noticed a major shift in what I saw on Facebook. The teeny costumes and drunken pictures were replaced by photos of wedding rings and babies in costumes. Many of the profile pictures I saw were of couples, and it warmed my heart to see wedding photos and pictures of my friends taking their children trick-or-treating as a family.

As I sat in my rocker pondering this late the other night, I looked down at my own wedding rings. As you know, Hallowe’en will always hold a special place in my heart as it was the first time I laid eyes on my soon-to-be Hubster… eight years ago.

Who knew that a silly $5 Lady Bug costume could affect my life so profoundly? If you had told me then that buying that costume and attending that dance would change my life forever, I would have laughed in your face. As a first year university student enjoying freedom from boundaries for the first time, marriage and children were not even on my radar.

Fast forward four and a half months and as I found myself staring down at a beautiful engagement ring in the Hubster’s hands, I realized that I couldn’t imagine a life without him.

And now, here we are–a tiny family of three–and I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. I no longer feel like such an anomaly just because I’m married–most of my friends are married or in committed relationships now too.

And I have to be honest–I much prefer seeing photos of tiny baby cheeks in giraffe costumes than photos of bum cheeks in sexy unicorn costumes.

(I had to google sexy unicorn to see if such a costume exists.)

(Obviously, it does. haha)

As I rocked in my chair and watched my beautiful daughter wind down and fall asleep, I just felt… content. Even though we had been awake for three hours, I realized just how much I am enjoying this new phase of our lives.

While I sometimes miss the freedoms of university life, I’m happy that it’s behind me and that the future ahead looks so bright.

I hope you are too. :)