Mom's Day

I don't know what anyone else has planned for Sunday, but it sure would be hard to top today in terms of pure Mom-lovin' activities.

Both of the boys had Mother's Day teas at school so I did one first with Zach and then with Luke. Zach was a little ambivalent about his party (see exhibit A at left). Even though I told him it was a "Mommy party" and all of the mommies would be there, he still clung to me as if I might take off any second. They had a little song and a snack, and the main highlight for Zach was eating a chocolate muffin and pouring himself a glass of lemonade that was full up to HERE (apparently no one noticed him with the pitcher in hand, so he just went to town filling a cup for himself).

At Luke's class party, the kids sang three songs (You Are My Sunshine, Y-E-L-L-O-W Spells Yellow, and Mamma Mia). I'd like to pretend the songs were a surprise but Luke has been practicing them on me all week, so I kind of knew they were coming. The surprise that he had been nearly bursting to keep from me was a present that he made out of an Altoid tin. And I would have been surprised, too, had the mom sitting next to me during the songs not said, "...And I can't wait to see the jewelry boxes they made from the Altoid tins." Ooops.

But one of my favorite parts by far was the pictures that each of the kids drew of their moms. It was supposed to be an illustration of something that your mom likes to do. So Luke drew a picture of me -- wearing the dangle-y earrings that Dave gave me for our anniversary, which now seem to be emblematic for him of me being happy -- and it said, "My mommy is going to New Jersey to see her mom and dad." I am just fascinated and tickled that he sees me like that.

As I was lying here thinking more about the day, I was doing a little mental calculation: Turns out I am just about to reach the 2000-day mark of being a mom. Two thousand days -- and nights! How did I get this far? I think back on my first night of being a mom, in a hospital bed with Luke by my side, and not sleeping at all because I was just so awed and excited and nervous and confused. I was a completely different person then because at the time I didn't even know a fraction of what I know now, 2000 nights later. Just imagine how much more I have to learn.