Yesterday, my husband and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary.  It also marks a decade since we first met. We celebrated by starting my son in a new daycare and going to my daughter’s Meet and Great at her new school.  We finished off the night by cleaning up the gazillion toys thrown around the family room, washing the dishes, and jointly changing one of the grossest poop diapers my son has ever created.  To say that marriage has changed after children, is an understatement.

To be fair, we did go out for drinks and appetizers after my daughter’s school event.  But I was too full from the giant bowl of ice cream I ate at school, to eat or drink at the restaurant.  Somehow I managed to down a glass of Prosecco, but then I could feel myself getting sleepy and practically face planting on the lovely restaurant linens.

Yes, our marriage may not be as glamorous, exciting, and unpredictable as when we were newlyweds. But, we have accepted that our lives as co-parents require us to shift priorities around at times. We have new milestones to celebrate with our children,  and even everyday challenges to overcome and joys to welcome into our little family of four’s world.

When I take a step back and reflect on the totality of our “new normal” on our anniversary, I would say it is more than fine. There was no drama, no expectations, and it all seemed to fit in with relative ease. The significance of our day did not feel diminished by our kid’s school event or housework. Running a household, gearing up for kindergarten and celebrating our relationship, it turns out, can all happen together.