Mother's Day 2013

How things change, mainly the kids ages and the length of my hair. In all seriousness we have a lot of really big changes on the horizon so it felt good to maintain some traditions. I got flowers and home made cards from the kids. We had a special breakfast and visits with grandparents. We took our annual photo and had a picnic. It was a really beautiful day.

It occurred to me recently that I'll had an opportunity to establish an identity apart from "mother of two" soon. Well, to be fair I always have had the opportunity, but now I'm likely to take advantage. I am Mom and a real person. Even if the kids don't know me apart from the one who cleans up and feeds them, i'm getting reacquainted. I gave myself a pat on the back this year for all my hard work. I'm so grateful for the time my kids have been my whole world, but I look forward to my world just revolving around them.

While digging up old Mother's Day photos I read some old posts and found this gem: best mother's day memory.

Mother's Day Recap

I know it's been a while, but I got a beautiful card from Riley that she made at school a few days after Mother's Day and then visited Stuff Kids Write which inspired me to dig out my scanner. So here is her beautiful card:

The Front

Her hand prints. Of course the finger nails are painted, my little girly girl.

The message it was raining that day so it got a little smeared. It says:

HANDS DOWN!
5 Reasons I Love Mommy...
She dooz kisses!
Mommy plays house!
She pushes me on swings!
Mommy make my hair wook pretty!
She gives food on the table!

Just imagine a Mother's Day card that doesn't have any mention of video games. If only her brother had been guided through his Mother's Day card process by a preschool teacher...

I described his card in my Mother's Day Post and here it is in its full glory. He poses the question "Does being good at video games count?" Count for what? We never do find out, but maybe it's a more existential query than I'm giving a 9yr old credit for.

Yes, Happy Mother's Day and I love you Mom BUT did you know how they layer the backgrounds of video games in a specific way to give them dimension? Whoa! Right? Now you'll NEVER forget because I wrote in in your card. My research is pretty reliable, it may even be half true. So, you're welcome for the quasi enlighting "fact" and the rushed sentiment.

If deep thinking and made up video game facts weren't enough, a portrait. Thanks kid, that one is a real confidence booster. I didn't recognize myself with the hair cut. I may give hime permission to stop making non-stick figure renderings of me from now on. On top of my lovely self he drew what he tells me is his dad falling in the background (the speck over my shoulder there). I guess you only get parachutes on Father's Day.

All joking aside, weird cards are what memories are made of. Also in his defense "The Euro of Women will rise" was a tough act to follow.

Mother's Day 2012 Edition

Mother's Day 2012

There was Burger King breakfast in bed and sleeping in. A card from Miss Roo with every color of the rainbow and pretty stickers. Isaac's card was made with printer paper and a blue highlighter. He slid it under the door and then burst through with gusto.

The front was a drawing of a Nintendo DS screen with a "Mario Game" on it and controls beneath. It was detailed and accurate (I'm told I haven't played a video game since the early 90s). Under the picture is said "Mom, does being good at video games count?......." Inside it said "I just wanted to say I love you Mom! Happy Mother's Day, Mom!" Underneath that it said "From: [His Full Name]" "To: [My Full Name]" Under that is said "Fact: The background of Super Mario" He drew a trademark symbol next to Mario. "Uses the method 5d or different depths." Under that he drew an example picture.

On the opposite page it said "and another one." He drew me in 5-d with some buildings and a tiny stick figure falling in the distance. When I asked him who it was he explained that it was his dad. It was overall a strange card, but much less so then last year so I think we're headed in the right direction.

We visited with mothers and grandmothers. We played with our puppy. Mike planted pumpkins. We had a nice steak dinner and home. It was just a nice weekend day.

Appreciation Days

Mother's Day 2010

Mother's Day caught me slightly by surprise the first year. After all I still didn't have any biological children and wasn't entirely confident in my parental role in Isaac's life. It had been 11months since I had been a single girl on the other side of the country. I remember Isaac, who had never celebrated Mother's Day before asking Mike what exactly it was. Perhaps, that's part of the reason it started out so traditionally.

Mike and Isaac insisted I stay in bed and eventually produced breakfast. There were cards exchanged and I think we even took a picture. The next year was much the same. It was the 3rd Mother's Day when I had two children that things shifted. It sounds bad, but I told Mike not to do breakfast in bed.

It was more stressful than relaxing listening to them bang around in the kitchen. My blood sugar is always low in the morning and often between getting everyone up and to the store I'd be served a late lunch. There were incidents with spills in the sheets and such. It just wasn't worth it to me. Especially at this stage in the kids lives.

Mother's Day 2011

In fact when we discussed it we agreed that growing up mom got breakfast in bed and cards and dad got a dinner out the following month. As it turns out we decided to swap. I wanted to go out to eat and Mike wanted breakfast. It was a relief to talk about it. I didn't feel as guilty with it out in the open.

The next year went better. Mike agreed after one breakfast in bed that he'd rather just sleep in and eat at the table. Going out to eat with a toddler is a pain even when it isn't a major holiday so my mother's usually involves a meal request that Mike grills. Oddly enough that's how we did it last Father's Day too. He grilled his own steak. I cleaned up.

We weren't seeing eye to eye on gifts either and we discovered Mike had never been acknowledged in his 5years as a single dad and was harboring some resentment. Last year I gave him an awesome set of knifes he loves them. We use them all the time. Not surprisingly he wasn't as bowled over by my homemade Father's Day collage as a good set of good knives.

I love the kids cards! Sometimes there's handprints or poetry too. I adore the homemade stuff, but I also wanted some kind of token from Mike thanking me for being the mother of his children. Expectations on this front remain rather low as this request has never been granted to date. I did send him to the grocery store with a list and a 2yr old assistant this morning so dinner and desert tomorrow are well in hand.

Mother's Day Strangeness

It should surprise no one that Isaac's Mother's Day card this year was a little odd after what happened last year. I don't have any real context to offer there wasn't any.

He presented me with a large pice of pink construction paper folded in half with two worksheets stapled inside. The one on the left had questions he was supposed to answer like My mom is great because ___________. Hard to go wrong with one of those because they've done all the heavy lifting for you. Here's what it said:

I can see where he was going with "Mom is special because she is disabled" in light of "special people", "special ed", and the special olympics. I even understand the mild laziness of "I Like it when my mom helps me with something" way to be vauge kiddo. What got me was his final answer: "My mom is smart! She even knows how to drive disabeled!" He even ended it with an exclaimation point. He wrote a whole story about how smart his dad is at the beginning of the year and the only example he could think of for me was that I drive?!? It made me wonder if someone said something to him implying that it was remarkable in some way that I can drive a car. What a load of bologna.

I know I'm supposed to love everything the kids give me, but come on. I asked him to tell me another reason I was smart since being physically capable of driving didn't really count and he couldn't think of one. Ouch. When I rattled off a of things I do for him that require inteligence later in the day Isaac laughed and said "Oh, yeah."

The weirdness kicked up a notch on the right side of my card. It said mother down the side and he was supposed to write something for each letter and then a little paragraph about why mom's great. Here's what he came up with.

Rising, crashing, breaking, Oh My! Maybe he thought he was supposed to be doing nature haiku. I really have no idea.

Bonus points for drawing a hedgehog on the back.

It's the thought that counts I just wish I knew what he was thinking. The brain of an 8yr old is an interesting place.

Mother's Day Comedy

Please note Riley's shirt says "My Mom's the Best. Mother's Day 2010"

I'd like to thank Isaac for cheering things up a bit around this blog...

Last year I was pregnant and on bed rest on Mother's Day. Isaac (with Daddy's supervision) made me breakfast in bed. He was very excited and plopped the tray including a mug of tea and vase of flowers down a little to enthusiastically as a result I was sitting in a sizable pool of cold water. I remember perching on the only dry patch of bed picking at my cold breakfast while Isaac cried in the next room.

So, this year I said maybe I should just eat breakfast at the table. Isaac brought me the card he made at school first. It had a bouquet of brightly colored hands on popsicle sticks in a flower pot. Each hand had a way to help out on it such as "wash the baby" which was one of my favorites.

"Isaac, is this your hand?"

"No, my teacher made them."

"Oh, well did you at least pick these pretty colors?"

"No, those are the ones my teacher gave me."

"Oh. Well what are we doing next?"

"I don't know."

"I think you're dad might need your help with breakfast."

"Good idea, breakfast. Dad, what are we making?"-He's yelling from the bedroom

At which point Mike tells him to be quiet because he's only making it worse. Apparently humble to the core Isaac wanted none of the credit for the Mother's Day goings on.

His card also featured a poem he wrote:

"Rose as red. Violets are indigo. (under which he hastily scribbled or blue)

Happy Mother's Day.

I love you"

So, on the way to the grocery store Mike tired to help him rework the poem. He suggested:

"Roses are red, Violets are indigo

Moms are so sweet

They help their kids to grow."

To which Isaac replied "What?!? They aren't sweet!"

"They're not?"

"They don't help you grow."

"They don't."

"No, they help you die."

"What?!?"

"And go to hell. (brief pause) or heaven"

"You think moms help you die?"

"No, not moms. Bombs!"

In case you were wondering I did have breakfast in bed. The boys made be belgian waffles with peaches. They were amazing. Isaac brought my plate and Mike followed with my drink. (: