Mother's Day 2008

I have 4 people that love me. That's pretty sweet. Each member of my family has been fully aware that it's Mom's day today & they've tried to show it in their own unique way...

Joel...

"So what do you want for Mother's Day this year," Joel asked a couple of weeks ago. He was visibly relieved when my response was, "You don't need to buy me anything." He tensed up when I followed that up with, "I just want to have a day of solitude. You can handle everything, right?" Joel usually gets a little tense when faced with that prospect. He's such a trooper though. He came home from a 36 hour moonlighting shift this morning (he can sleep at this one) and has tried to make my day special ever since. He did some laundry (I know, I know, it's Sunday, but I'll take it man!), got the kids ready for church (with my help), and invited us to the Olive Garden to celebrate. JD said, "But it's Sunday Dad." DANG THOSE RIGHTEOUS KIDS! So we had french toast sticks with eggs and sausage instead. Eternal salvation never tasted so sweet :).

My Kiddlins...

I reminded JD and Camryn like a dozen times yesterday that they had to be good for me because it was Mother's Day tomorrow. When they were fighting I'd say, "You're not making my Mother's Day very special." That got them to stop. It lasted for a bit until they became desensitized to my guilt trip. They were way cute today though...

JD...

He crawled into bed with me this morning and we snuggled for a while. Afterwards, he darted downstairs to retrieve his Mother's Day present for me (that he made at school). It was this cute mama bunny holding a book. The pictures inside of the book were meticulously colored by JD. While we were hanging out in my room waiting for Christian and Camryn to wake, he told me, "Mom, I'll get Christian when he wakes up and take him downstairs and play playdoh with him. Will you get the playdoh out?" Hmmm....adorable, but a big mess to clean up. Instead, he brought Christian to me and we all snuggled until Dad came home. Later in the evening JD came upstairs and presented me with a cute watering can made out of clay. I hugged him and said, "Ohhh, you're so dang cute! Thank you!" "Acutally," he said,"I made it for me. Will you bake it?"

Nice.

Camryn...

She wanted to make my day special too. She kept giving me these totally random things that were laying around the house as my presents. She would come with her head tilted and say, "This is your present for Mother's Day." She would then hand me things like a yellow paper clip, a peso from Mexico, pieces of paper that were "cookies" and sheet after sheet of her handwritten alphabet. Really it was just the letters A B B over and over with an H thrown in periodically (for Heather of course). She was quite proud to present me with her hand beaded necklace that she made in primary. I put it on immediately and she thought that was just glorious. She asked for it back later that evening.

Nice.

Christian...

He showed me his affection by refusing his nap, hitting me in the face and drawing me lots of cute pictures on my dresser.

Nice.

I'll work on him so that by next year I can guilt him into good behavior too.

Mom...

Well, after breakfast Camryn and JD had a great time playing with my jello tummy. I told them, "I sacrificed my flat tummy to bring you into this world!" They just laughed and kept pushing and poking in amazement. I think Camryn's hand disappeared at one point. I soon tired of the abuse and folded my tummy back into place.

I got to be a "Mystery Mom" in primary today and the kids thought that was pretty fun. I was hidden behind a partition and had to answer random questions with a funny voice. I got to have a day off from Nursery. I got a big chocolate bar at church that JD decided looked good enough to sneak pieces from. I got to have my "solitude" with the kids while Joel kept sneaking upstairs to check on the Jazz vs. Lakers game.

Sweet.

It's all good. My kids love me. My husband loves me. What else could a girl need?

Actually, I can think of a few things....