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"Hello, my name is Emma Radcliffe and this is my small, yet beautiful home located in the one and only Starlight Shores, where normal people can become superstars. Well if you want to become a superstar that is.. I don't see why someone would purposely become famous just to have their privacy invaded by the paparazzi all the time. But I do want people to know who I am, and to recognize my name when they hear it. Which is why I have always wanted to become an Illustrious Author. I've always had a passion for creative writing, and planned on writing a great novel when I met a man and fell in love.. Well, thought I had fallen in love at least. You see, the man I thought I knew and loved turned out to be nothing but a liar and a coward. We dated for two years and I put my dream of becoming a professional writer on hold so that I could stay home and just be a typical housewife without the being married part. He had a great job in the military and worked hard everyday, so when we found out that we were going to be parents, it wasn't a scary shock, in fact it was a welcomed surprise. However, like I mentioned before, he didn't turn out to be type of man that I thought he was. Several months into the pregnancy, we found out we were going to be having a little girl, which made me happy, although I would have been just as thrilled to have a son. But it seemed like finding out we were having a girl and not a boy made my relationship with my ex difficult. He had talked about wanting a son pretty much non-stop from the moment we found out we were having a baby, but I really didn't think that it would be any different if we had a girl, apparently it was. A couple more months after finding out the sex of our baby, my ex started staying out later and later with his friends every night after work. Then those late week nights turned into late weekends and finally he began to take weekend trips to Bridgeport with his friends. Now he has always had a bit of an addiction to gambling, but he could always control it, however once the weekend trips started happening every single weekend his gambling spiraled out of control. When he would get back late Sunday night, I would be awake and of course I had a thousand questions about what all he had been doing and when he told me how much he spent gambling of course I flipped my lid. Then after the late week nights, the weekend trips, and the out of control gambling, came the drinking and I'm not talking one or two drinks a month or whatever... I'm talking about going through a six pack right after work, and then heading out with his friends to a bar or club and getting so wasted that he couldn't even walk and had to have one of his friends or a cab bring him home. And let me tell you, a woman who is seven months pregnant DOES NOT need to be caring for a significant other who is constantly getting wasted to the point of not being able to walk on his own and almost having alcohol poisoning."
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"This is my daughter Zoey, she looks so much like her father sperm donor. She has his red hair, and green eyes, sometimes I can barely see myself in her at all.. But I know that she is mine and that's all that matters. My ex didn't even get a say in her name at all, since he had acted as foolishly as he did when we were together, and not to mention about a month before Zoey was born he walked out of our lives forever. He said he was tired of not being respected and tired of being constantly nagged to stay home instead of go out and party with his friends. Well, I'm sorry but I deserve some respect and attention too when I'm the one who is carrying a child that we BOTH helped to create, as well as being the one who is constantly at home, putting her dreams on hold and making sure dinner is cooked every night, and the house is spotless when he gets home from work. I have given up everything for him, and when the time came for him to man up, he didn't and now I'm the one who is an adult and forced to do things the hard way. But there is no way that I will change having my daughter in my life at this time. She is the best thing in this world that has ever happened to me, and I hope that I can provide her the life that she deserves. She didn't ask to be born, and so therefore I will do whatever I have to, to make sure that she is happy and loved. And just because I'm a single mother, doesn't mean I can't have a happy life, and it doesn't mean I will never find love or even achieve my dreams and goals in life. In fact, I'm going to achieve my dream of becoming an Illustrious Author, it will just take longer and be much more difficult than it would have been before I was ever with my ex. One thing is certain, I will never let another man treat me the way that my ex treated me, and especially now that Zoey is actually here.. If a man can't love my me and my daughter, then I have to keep looking, my little girl deserves a great father figure, and I deserve a great significant other."
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"That's enough about my past, let's get on with what has happened since moving here to Starlight Shores. Since I am what others would call a 'bookworm', I had to find the public library, if there was one.. Much to my pleasure I was able to find it with ease. So what did we do on our first day in town? That's right, we took a special trip to the library so that I could use the public computer to get started on my writing. It would have been easier to write if I had a computer of my own at home, but I spent pretty much every penny on buying the house, and making sure that Zoey had all the things she needed for her room as well as for potty training, and of course I needed a high chair for her. It left us with only a hundred and something dollars to spend, well in our case, to save."
"Anyway, we took a trip to the local library and here's an interesting fact, this library had a special place for the little ones to go so that the parents could go and read, do research, or use the computers without having to tote their younger kids around. So before I took off to go write, I sat down with Zoey and read a book with her. She loves me reading to her, and looking at all of the pictures, I hope that she enjoys reading as much as I do when she's older but who knows.. Kids can be completely different than their parents are, so I'm just going to assume that she won't love it as much as she seems to right now."
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"Aside from going to the library, Zoey and I spend much of our time at home. I don't really like getting out and meeting a ton of new people... I suppose that just comes from me not wanting to attach myself to anyone, especially a man. I'm just afraid of the end result, though not all of the guys out there are bad.. However, I'm content staying inside or going to the library with Zoey, one of her favorite things is when I get her with 'The Claw'. It's so cute how she acts afraid, but then bursts into huge fits of giggles when I tickle her. She is such a wonderful little girl, I don't know what I would do without this little one in my life. Things would certainly be boring if she had never been born."
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"Every morning we get up at 7 am and eat breakfast (and surprisingly Zoey is not a picky eater), then bathe, and get ready for the day ahead of us. Oh and I ended up selling the couch, an end table, our small television set, and a chair to make enough money to buy a used computer, it's nothing fancy but it'll get the job done. So now I can stay home and spend much more time with Zoey than I could if we were going to the library every day. And this way, I know when her naps are, when she eats, when she needs to be changed, etc. Sometimes those 'daycare' workers at the library don't care enough to make sure that each child sticks to the schedule that the parents outline for them. Oh and trust me, I complained when I found out about how the workers were slacking."
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"In between working on writing a best-selling novel, I try to spend as much quality time with Zoey as possible. She's only two-years-old so this stage is a very important one, and refuse to pawn her off on a babysitter just so I can get some work done. Though a babysitter would be nice since writing is my only form of money making so far. Regardless of how stressful single parenting is, I feel like I'm doing much better than most are, except for the money issue. Zoey is so smart, she recognizes all the different shapes to her peg box, and can fit them all through the appropriate holes. She is a budding musician, as well. Her little xylophone gets played quite often, and I'm pretty sure she has figured out how to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, but I could be wrong.. It's just how the melody sounds to me. She seems to be such a quick learner, I think she was potty trained in about a week give or take a day or two. Talking and walking shouldn't be too hard for her to grasp if all of these things are coming so easily and naturally for her."
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"A couple weeks after she learned to say a few basic words, she started to talk even more, and she even began to walk on her own and not with my holding onto her hands and helping her along. I mean, really and truly walking by herself. Sure she was a bit wobbly at first, and she is a bit older than some kids who can walk, but she got it down in two days time. So it wasn't that she couldn't do it, she just wanted to walk when she was ready and not when everyone else wanted her to. I can already see that this little girl may have a stubborn streak, but only time will tell that."
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"Bed time routines are even easy with this kid. I swear she has to be the sweetest, smartest, and most well-mannered toddler I've ever seen in my life... I'm not one to judge but come on, you can't help but notice another parent or a couple with a toddler that is screaming their head off in the middle of a grocery store while yours is sitting there all innocent and happy. It makes you wonder about the different parenting styles.. But trust me she does have a tantrum every now and then, it's just not as often or as intense as some of the other kids her age that I've seen."
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"Within five, sometimes ten minutes of being put to bed for the night, Zoey is out like a light. She has been sleeping through the night since she was probably about six or seven months old. So I've had much more sleep than some parents get to have. Zoey is the light of my life, and I'm just so proud to be her mom."
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"But soon, it was time for Zoey's birthday. In the fall she would be going to school for the first time, and trust me my stomach was in knots at the thought of my little girl growing up and heading to school now. But I have managed to survive this much of parenting Zoey on my own with zero help from anyone. I think that I can get through raising her to adulthood, and I believe that she will be an even more extraordinary person than she already is to me."
"Now, that Zoey is old enough to go to elementary school, I will be able to do so much more writing.. Which means I will finally be able to start providing for her the way that I want to."
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