Happy Mother's Day

So this year was my third official Mother's Day. It would have been my fourth had Little Miss Stubborn arrived by her due date, but instead I spent that Mother's Day (2008) in labor. From 3:00 am on. And on and on and into the next day.

It's funny - that's about the hour that this Mother's Day started for me, too - about 3:00 am with the same little one. She's been sick with a cough and for several nights we've ended up out on the couch in the living room so that she can sleep propped up.

Thankfully, she was very tired and went right back to sleep and slept till 7:00. Except for one little blip when she bolted upright and said
"MOMMY!" [I jumped up.]
"What honey?"
"If Riley wants blue then I want red."
I had no idea what she was talking about. I finally said "Ok honey" because she was sitting there waiting for a response (she always requires a response), at which point she settled back down and went right back to sleep.

And so went my Mother's Day - sleep all chopped up, conversations with people all chopped up, chores all chopped up. I'm trying to fold a load of laundry but I have to stop because Riley is frustrated because Annie dressed his teddy bear in unfamiliar doll clothes and he's yelling "NO, NO, NO!" at his bear. It's a crisis. Or I'm in the middle of a conversation with Benjy and I have to interject "Riley, don't eat things out of the garbage!" That kid! He won't eat more than 2 bites of the 5 course dinner I put in front of him but I'm always catching him taste-testing the trash.

So it wasn't a perfect day. The kids weren't on their best behavior all day. There was hair-pulling and fighting and toys thrown out of the bath tub.

But I guess it wouldn't have been a real Mother's Day with out all of that, because that's the thing about being a mom - the mystery of how I can love these little people so much when they make me so crazy! I never knew how much my parents loved me until I had kids. And I wonder will my kids ever know how much I love them? Hopefully, if God gives them the blessing of children.