Its not the big things that take us by surprise.

When I had my son in the winter of 09' I knew a lot of things were bound to change. I would be a mom from now on. No longer would I be just Aleisha for example. I knew my evenings would be filled with sport practices and homework. And gone were the quiet relaxing lazy weekends were my husband and I would stay in bed for hours.

All things I took in to consideration and even looked forward to in a lot of ways.

But sometimes its the small things, the things we don't think about that catch us of guard. Like sick leave.

Before my son, I didn't care much about sick leave and for the most part I didn't even really touch it. A thing I was thankful for when I was expecting. That's right. I could go for months without so much of a day off. And it wasn't unusual for me to have an excess of over 80 hours laying around. I won't lie, I would take a day or two off when I needed a mental health day not even thinking about it. Because I had plenty and surely I would never really need all that much of it anyway.

But now that I have my son I can't seem to keep it. I am barely lucky to have stored 40 hours before either my son-which in turns gets brought to me-or myself get sick. I look back at those days not long ago when having days built up was so easy and think, man....

Perhaps I bring this up, because I have spent the past two days in bed, with the cruds and while I sit here typing this I still feel like crap but know I need to go into work if I want to have any sick leave still available.

Just in case.

Or maybe its because recently my friend had suggested we take a mental health day sometime in the near future, to do a girls day. And while I thought how lovely that would be, at the same very moment I was calculating just how many hours I would need and how many hours I need to save up, once again in the likelihood that something would come up.

I am in no means complaining about my son, or having to deal with sick kids and leave. But sometimes it just amazing how much life has changed. How much in the span of two years I have gone from careless twenty something who lived for the days of being carefree and spontaneous to a thirty year old mother of one, who seems to have to plan and prepare.

Including her sick leave.

Just in case.