Quiz: Lauren Alexander

Let's take a quiz, shall we? Let's see just how much you and I have in common...

1. You have about 5 minutes in the morning before you "clock in", what's your #1 priority?

For me it's coffee, coffee, coffee. I need to either drink it or at least get it started before I can begin to wake up and remember how to fasten a diaper.

2. It's one of the most treasured times of day in a mom's life- naptime! How do you spend it?

I would break it down like this...1/3 of the time I clean and straighten up the disaster that my child created that morning. 1/3 is spent emailing, paying bills, and checking out the calendar to see what I've got coming up. And 1/3 is spent eating lunch while watching some horrible reality show on my DVR (Let's be honest, this is clearly the best part of naptime).

3. The hubs and you snag a babysitter for a precious night out alone! What do you do?

Because we live away from family we have to rely on babysitters for our time out alone. But this can get expensive so unfortunately we don't get to do it nearly as much as we'd like to. So when we pay up for a babysitter the pressure's on to make the best of it. I'd like to say we do something really unique and creative on our night out but typically it comes down to us grabbing dinner and drinks and not worrying about wiping a nose or butt unless it's our own.

4. It's been one of those days where the kiddo screamed all day, you dropped everything you touched, and your dear husband is going to be working late. How do you manage?

Well, after a glass of wine (or two) I try to break up the time between dinner and bedtime into increments so that it feels a little more manageable. We'll take a walk, lay a blanket outside and enjoy some fresh air, do bath time and then hopefully it's bedtime for the little one. Looking at the time as small 1/2 hour blocks vs. oh-my-gosh-daddy-isn't-home-for-another-3-hours feels much more bearable and keeps this mommy from going insane.

5. Somehow you manage to break free of the evening routine and pull together a girls night. What's your favorite way to spend it?!

Honestly, a girls night can be made up of anything for me. The fact of the matter is that it's just going to be us girls and no real responsibility. Who cares what you do, right?! You could take the route of a movie where it's just 2 glorious hours of nothing but food, drink, and the sound of laughter instead of a tantrum. Or how about happy hour where you manage to put on make up and dry your hair for the first time that week. Somehow you start to look and feel like your previous self and realize you should do this much more often (the girls night as well as the make up thing).

So how do we compare? More alike than not? Maybe. Or maybe not. The fact is, though, that this is about all it takes to connect with someone else and maybe make a new friend. These are the basics of our life (sad maybe but true) and if you find even just one similarity you may be surprised how far that can take you and your new friend. We come from all sorts of backgrounds but this mommyhood thing turns us into very simple people with very similar lives and the sooner we realize that the easier it becomes to connect with your new found friend.