Mother’s Day OR Just Another Day in Paradise

I have really got to stop multi-tasking. As usual, time slipped away again until I had the realization that, *gasp* holy crap!, Mother’s Day was a scant few days away. Aside from the constant barrage of reminders, a.k.a. nagging, for my husband to go get a card for his mother, I hadn’t even begun the search of what to get my mom. Now mind you, she lives in Oklahoma so not only do I have to figure out what to get her on a minuscule budget I also have to take into account the time it takes to ship it for appropriate arrival time. Trust me when I say failure to arrive on time is not an option here. One particular Mother’s Day comes to mind when, because the delivery person got lost and the flowers didn’t arrive until well after dark, I got a number of phone calls throughout the course of the day “thanking me” for “remembering” with the non-existent gift I sent. Love ya, Mom! These days I try to plan ahead. So much so that when she called to thank me for the TWO orders of flowers I sent, I nearly plotzed. I really thought I had placed multiple orders when I was comparison shopping and anxiously checked my bank account for what I was assured would amount to a house payment. Luckily, the flower company merely split the order in two for shipment purposes. By the way, Mom loved the flowers.

So, what happened here at the zoo? Trust me when I say it was blissfully calm and uneventful. Sorry to let you all down. There were no Legos in the microwave or snake in the gerbil cage. In fact, they didn’t even fight over the video games. I know what you’re all thinking, and, NO, I didn’t drug them. I swear – we’re out of Benadryl even if I had wanted to do it. Instead, my in-laws took the older two bowling and swimming on Saturday and hubby got tickets for me and youngest Alex to see “Thomas Saves the Day” on stage at Jones Hall.

Aside from the small ransom I paid for a Thomas hat, keychain, and an inflatable booster seat that looks like it was left over from a Budweiser Super Bowl party and was a pain to navigate with through the crowd, we had an amazing time. I can’t describe the feeling of watching the sheer joy light up his face every time a train came on the stage or he got to make a whistle sound with the audience. I’ve been fortunate enough to watch each child go through this at this age: Christopher saw “Blues Clues Live” and Simon had “A Day Out with Thomas.” It is such a surreal age between the time they move from that magical world of childhood to the concrete literal world in which they will reside for the rest of their lives. It’s the salad days, the ones we have to cherish because they are so fleeting. And I mean on the wings of an F-14. No sooner had we left the theatre and got in the car did Alex throw a screamin’ meme fit because the inflatable booster seat wouldn’t fit in the car seat for him to sit on for the ride home. In fact, he screamed his disagreement with me all the way from Jones Hall, down Texas Ave., through Memorial Park, and half way down 610. But then, magically the tears stopped and he asked if we could go to the beach. Go figure. Cybil has struck again.

I recently read an interview with Eve Branson, Sir Richard’s mother. When asked if he was naughty in school, she replied, “Let's say he was unusual at school. We didn't know whether he was 99 percent stupid and 1 percent rather exceptional. We hung on to that 1 percent. Not everybody would want a son like that, but I'm quite glad now, mind you.”
You know, when each of my children were in their early days of toddlerhood, I was convinced that I knew what kind of person they were going to be. Christopher, who basically walked out of my womb waving behind him has actually become the more reserved one who really is happiest if no one moves his cheese. He also carries the weight of the world on his shoulders and would give anyone the shirt off his back. Simon – I thought he would NEVER leave my side and would crawl back in if I turned my head. At one time, he was a student in my toddler class for a semester and I swear I thought he was going to put up bollards, barbed wire fencing, and a guard station around me so he was the only person who could get near me. Now? I barely get a kiss when he goes off to school and his newest form of entertainment is jumping off the roof. As for Alex, I haven’t got a clue. His teachers tell me he is a delightfully sweet child. I still don’t think they know which child in the class is mine.

But what I do know is that I am so blessed, everyday, to be their mom. They drive me nuts but out of the blue, Alex walks up to me, cups my face in his hands, and asks me if I’m happy. When I tell him that I am he smiles the smile of an angel while throwing his arms around me and professing “I love you, Mommy!” One minute Christopher is the pre-teen smart aleck that roles his eyes at every statement/request I make – clearly I have regressed to the Neanderthal state to which most parents of pre-teens and teens have been relegated. The next I hear, “Mommy, watch!” as I look up in time to see the soft pride radiating from his face that could light up the night sky as he perfects his latest skate board trick – he actually wants ME to watch and SHARE in his victory. During the day, Simon rushes in to school to be with his friends never looking behind him, but at night, all he wants to do is climb up next to me on the couch or in my bed and create his cocoon of warmth and safety that can only come from a Mommy and still being able to have his favorite blankies without outside judgment.

So as Mother’s Day winds down, I walk through the quiet house and breathe in the smell of family and am reminded of my special day. Shelby worked today and I literally spent the whole day in my pajamas with my only productive act being to warm up the chicken nuggets for lunch – in the microwave. We watched movies, took naps, tickled and laughed, played, and just existed in our little bubble. I know that there will be days in the somewhat near future that each child will be further and further away until there might not be anyone here with me on Mother’s Day. But until that time, I will cherish each argument and fight. I will remember with love the trips to the E.R. when I was the one they clung to during the ordeal. I will appreciate the opportunity to be the only adult in the family that actually knows the location of the orthodontist, which child takes what medicine and how much, and which one likes pepperoni and which one hates mushrooms. I will slow down and revel in the moment instead of hoping it rushes by more quickly. I am determined to see and appreciate the little things that are discovered during exploration – things I have forgotten like a snapdragon, a bird’s feather, and a doodlebug. When things get insane as they so often do, I will remind myself just how lucky I am and how thankful I am for my beautiful, amazing and definitely not average children.