Last week marked a major milestone for Hudson and Laura Bean. WE LEFT OUR BUBBLE!

By our bubble, I mean the immediate, walkable area around our condo. I’ve mentioned before (rather exhaustively at this point) how much I love to walk with Hudson. We can walk to literally anything we need: groceries, doctor’s offices, Target, restaurants, Starbucks, the lakefront and parks, even a hardware store. The only thing we don’t have access to by stroller is… the rest of the city. Which has a lot going for it, including all of our friends that live in other neighborhoods.

I’m not sure how this happened, but we have only left Streeterville with Hudson a handful of times in the seven months he’s been here. A few times to the burbs with family, and twice to visit my best friend in Wicker Park. For all of those trips, we’ve been a party of three—which was necessary because we’re still hanging on to the last vestiges of our DINK (dual income, no kids) lifestyle and have yet to get a car. So, those trips involved J going to pick up a car, install the carseat base, and then I’d meet him downstairs with Hudson and snap his carseat in.

Then, a few months ago I found out that the carseat base is actually not required to use the carseat safely—it’s just a convenience thing. But doing away with installing the heavy, awkward base was a game changer—without that step, it became totally possible for me to take Hudson out into the world by myself. So that’s how you get a baby in an Uber.

But the truth is, I’ve become a complete and total wimp. While I’ve always been a worrier, I used to have some cojones: I’ve traveled across the world solo; talked scary bouncers into letting my girlfriends and I skip the line at clubs in my early 20’s; I’ve used porta-potties at street fairs! But finagling my baby and all of the STUFF he requires into a car and out into the world? What if he freaked out and cried the entire drive? What if I couldn’t get the car seat installed? What if the waiting driver was impatient with me? Eh, let’s kick that can down the road. Definitely tomorrow, though.

Somehow me putting it off one more day, then another, turned into SEVEN MONTHS. How did that happen? What happened to my grand plans of “fitting my baby into my life”? (LOL)

So, when a friend extended the invite to visit her for a playdate in Ravenswood, I said yes before I had time to think about it. The day before, I Youtubed a carseat installation video about ten times, then decided I’d do better without the pressure of an Uber driver watching me attempt it for the first time with the clock ticking away. I’m also not entirely sure I trust an Uber driver with my child’s life. So I booked a Zipcar and awaited our fate.

As I’ve found to be the case often in life when I allow myself too much time to obsess about all the ways something could go wrong, it was no big deal. Easy, even. I was able to install the car seat securely in under 2 minutes, threw the stroller in the trunk and we were off into the world, hitting the open road for our great adventure. Or you know, just shooting up Lakeshore to Ravenswood for a 14 minute trip. We had a great time visiting friends, and the trip home was equally uneventful—Huds was all worn out and slept the entire way home.

So now, we’re officially mobile. And while yes, there’s a small part of myself that cannot believe I’ve made such a huge deal out of something that actually isn’t in the slightest, most of me is just really proud of myself for finally ripping off the bandaid and going.

It’s funny how intimidating some aspects of new parenthood can be. In some ways, I’ve surprised myself with how comfortable I’ve felt with the craziness that is new-parenthood. While the early days with Hudson were certainly not easy, I recall mostly feeling like, “I got this.” And I still feel like that, for the most part. But it’s easy to feel that way on your own turf—which is perhaps why I’ve been so content to just settle in to our little bubble without really coming up for air. This whole experience has been a not-so-subtle analogy for life, actually. Sometimes, you just have to move forward, even if you’re scared. Install that car seat, my friends! There’s a whole wide world out there.

I’m talking a big game here, but my nerves will be put to the test again soon. Our next big bubble-bursting milestone is looming: a flight. We’re heading to Palm Springs in less than 2 weeks to escape the cold and enjoy time with family, which I’ve been looking forward to for months now. Here’s hoping that this is yet another instance of me really working something up in my head to be much scarier than it really is, because right now I’m having a difficult time imagining how constraining our extremely wiggly and vocal baby for 4 hours is going to end well for anyone. Particularly those in our surrounding rows. Good thing he’s cute, right?

Cheers, friends! Hope you’re having a great weekend.