The Importance of Being Baby

When I was a junior in college, I had an internship at a small PR firm. The firm's owner had a background in marketing, public relations, and communications, including a stint with a local sports team. He was a bit of a sports nut, so he and I developed a good relationship. Despite his zeal for all things sports, I remember being surprised that I was constantly updating him on the results of games and the latest news. I was shocked, *shocked*, at discovering he didn't watch a single pitch of the baseball all-star game that year. He was the owner of a small business, handling a lion's share of the work, and also a parent to two young children. He loved baseball, he explained, but he simply didn't have the time.

I've embraced that sentiment over the past week. So many things that I would typically use to fill my time have fallen by the wayside as I focus on my baby and being a parent. Even basic daily elements of my routine have been shed. In the past year, I have averaged one day a month where I don't shower. Now, I haven't showered twice in the past four days. It's not that I don't have the time, I'm just too busy watching my cute daughter (and not leaving the house).

Here are a few other things that have plummeted on my interest list in the past week:

• Exhibition NFL games
• Crossword puzzles
• Most non-baby-related Internet activity
• Speaking in coherent, grammatically-correct sentences
• Updates from my mother on random people I went to high school with
• Dinner
• Jeopardy!
• Having more than one beer
  
• Shaving
• The life-altering relationship problems faced by the Sydney cast of "The Real World"
  
• Anything occurring after 10 p.m.