If you’re a mother
then a happy day to you. One day late.
My day of honor started out like this:
Sounds slowly infiltrating my brain, that had been resting so beautifully under the sun streaming in the window, bouncing off the rippling waters of Lake Lure. Sounds that rose in a cacophony, mosquito like in quality, when the bug gets closer and closer to your ear before it dawns that you are indeed about to be bit…I was there, no you weren’t, yes I was, no I was, that’s my spot, I want to be by Mommy, but I was, it’s my spot, no it’s mine, no it’s not, yes it is, no it’s not, move, no, yes, no…
…our two youngest, arguing over who could crawl in bed and rest by me on one of the 3 days a year I get to sleep in with NO guilt. So, naturally, I handled it thusly:
Do you realize, I began so calmly, that in your effort to bless me with your sweet little selves, you’ve managed to WAKE ME UP to the sounds of bicker bicker bicker? On one of only 3 days I get to sleep in with no latent guilt of not doing my job of tending to your every need and desire, while the good Lord above works the kinks of selfishness out of me, by giving you to me, so that I must never think of myself, or that I may be tired, or would like to pee without telling you how many rings Saturn has, or how nice an actual hot cup of coffee would be, instead of the repeatedly nuked one I always have because I get your seconds and thirds of breakfast first, or about how you get all the new clothes, and took my beautiful belly button far far away to never be the same, and how you are convinced that you are each planets about which I was created to spin…GO AWAY.
So. They did. But then, I couldn’t go back to sleep. Drat.
We ate breakfast out. I did not cook. Or clean the dishes. For that, I am grateful. We drove home from the lake. Without our friend’s very whiny spoiled and grating precocious 3 year old. Very grateful here. And at home, although I cooked something because it was just what I wanted for dinner, the Colonel and our Privates did their best to serve me. I received 3 fantastic presents, and they did mess duty. The Colonel took full charge of bed time, and the day came to a close. And although he stayed up till 3 am working, he made sure the kitchen was clean when I came down this morning.
A good man, he is. And I’m glad, if I have to learn that the world does not spin around me, that I can do it with him, and these 3 character builders, called children, who qualified me to have such a day, in the first place.
that was hilarious.
why didn’t i see it in a newspaper column??
Comment by Rie — May 15, 2006 @ 10:21 am