Mother's Day: Flowers and Freakouts ~ May 11, 2014

The day started off like most. Nora woke up at first light, began singing to herself, harassing Jamie to make her breakfast, and Owen woke me up as soon as he heard her and wanted to nurse, talk, and fart on me. Today was Mother's Day. A holiday that apparently was created by a woman to honor her mother but never had any children or married herself (it's true, look it up). Why does a made-up day, a holiday, create such pressure on people to behave in a certain manner? I assume that's what rational people wonder to themselves. Me? I was looking forward to our now thrice celebrated tradition of donuts and the house being clear of children for an hour or so. If the excuse of Mother's Day gave me that I was a-ok with it all.

Off they went for their donut walk and I dug in to leftovers for breakfast and watched the Sunday Morning Show. The one show I watch when it airs and everyone in the household knows to not bother me. The one show I enjoyed watching out of all the ones I was forced to watch while growing up. Mother's Day in our household normally involved badly hand-made items for our mother, including crappy cards and home ec monstrosities, and the Sunday Morning Show would normally be playing in the background to all of this. We didn't take her anywhere nice, do anything particularly special for her, or indulge her with alone time because our father, is and was, a degenerate deadbeat who never appreciated how hard she worked or how much she did and cared for all of us.

I thought about that as I drank my coffee in the sweet silence of our living room decorated with Nora and Owen's toys, pictures on the mantle, baskets of laundry adorning the dining room table, and listened to the news segments on my show. My current life is a drastic departure from my past. I like my life now, temper tantrums and all. Every mom deserves to be made to feel that her family loves her and appreciates her. I hoped all the moms I knew and loved were having a good day (or at least not being pestered).

          

 

       

They returned from their donut outing with a surprise bouquet of beautiful variegated purple tulips, a jug of milk, a box of donuts from Tonalli's and Nora screaming. Even with Owen asleep in the stroller, it still wasn't enough undivided attention with her father so she tried to run off more than once and became furious when they didn't stop at Kennedy School (can't say I blame her). If anything I'm jealous I don't get to freak out like a three year old.

They joined me for the last part of the Sunday Morning Show and we attempted to eat donuts while being attacked by our children like rabid raccoons. We fed Nora the bready inside of the donuts to fend her off. Owen was smacking his mouth as soon as they returned and was now attached to me for a nonstop nursing frenzy. He didn't mind the donut crumbs on his head one bit. 

Jamie announced that they were going to take me out to Edgefield for a hike around the property. I was excited and hurried to get all emergency necessities crammed into my clown car/purse as fast as possible. We were able to load everyone in to the car and pull away from the curb and got to two blocks before Nora started screaming "no" in an ever rising volume and octave. She didn't like the route we were taking. We explained that we were going to Edgefield and pacified her with snacks to shut her up. I silently hoped that she wouldn't pee herself on the ride out there since she refused to use the potty before we left. Owen fell asleep after a few minutes of fussing and was happily farting in his sleep.

Fun was had by all. We marched them around the property and enjoyed the frolicking antics of Nora that were punctuated by attempts to run away and freak out meltdowns over the slightest frustration or misunderstanding. It's like chaperoning a drunk mentally ill foreigner with a lose grasp of the English language. I would say "I imagine" but I've done so and it's very similar.

       

   

Nap in the car. The dreaded curse of parents everywhere. Nora fell asleep after so much drama, excitement, sugar and giving chase that we now would be facing the situation of whether or not to wake her once we were home since she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep once we pulled her out of the carseat. Jamie offered to stay in the car with her while I took Owen inside for his nap since he was awake. He sat with her for about an hour before she woke up freaking out once again. He brought her inside and let her sleep on top of him while he watched a movie. Owen and I resumed our position on the couch of him nursing and Jamie announced that my next surprise would be arriving around 3pm. An in-home massage. What an awesome mother's day!