Mother's Day Words

This year Eldon made videos of the girls talking to me for Mother's Day. It was so sweet of him and I loved the thought, even though Chiara told me she hoped I would be nice and Noelle just talked about the food I make. I guess when you don't get your way 100% of the time you have a mean mom.

"Mom, it makes me so sad when you don't give me what I want."

"I know, sweet girl. I get sad when I don't get what I want too. But it's just part of life."

"I don't want it to be part of my life!"

Apparently her world is not living up to her expectations. Poor, poor thing. And Noelle's greeting every morning the first second she sees me is, "Food!" I'm not making that up.

Last Thursday (three days before Mother's Day) I was asked to speak in church about the blessings of motherhood. I was also teaching the women's meeting the third hour, so it was a pretty busy day for me. Luckily I got to sleep in. Oh wait, no, no I didn't. I woke up at 6:00am with my kids like I always do. I spent the whole morning being (internally) mad at Eldon about that, thinking that he had just decided he was too tired to let me sleep in on the only day I get to during the whole year. Turns out he just hadn't heard them. Or heard me when I told him they were awake. Or felt my gentle nudging.

(Side note: One of my friends said people shouldn't say they slept like a baby to indicate a good night's rest. Instead they should say, "I slept like a husband." Aahhh, wouldn't that be nice? To sleep peacefully off-duty, completely unaware of the world around them. That's the Sunday afternoon nap for me, when I know Eldon is awake and he'll take care of the kids if they wake up before me. What would it be like to sleep that soundly every night? I can't even imagine.)

When we got home from church I took a long nap. Happy happy day. The girls presented me with the artistic creations they'd made during their classes, including a game to do with M&Ms that Noelle did not understand but insisted on playing with Chiara and me.

I think that was when her mood took a turn toward stormy.

Whatever the reason, she had a little meltdown at dinner. I think I mentioned that she does that from time to time. Eldon had to take her to her room for a timeout, and he came back to the table he was less than cheerful.

"You gave Noelle a timeout?" Chiara asked him.

"Yes. We don't like to have to give her timeouts, but we have to teach her to make good choices. Sometimes it's hard to be a parent."

"It doesn't look hard to me."

Eldon and I made eye contact across the table and just lost it. We've been laughing about that ever since.

Apparently we make this job look effortless. I'm sure it's the dream of every adult male to pretend he's a horse carrying princesses to their beds at night.

And I, like every other female on the planet, have spent my whole life hoping I would one day have the privilege of  fishing toys out of my toddler's diaper.

Delightful.

Of course I love it all, though. I'd do anything for these darling, lovely, charming little girls.

For them I will cheerfully forgo the next decade's worth of decent rest. I'd rather be a mommy than sleep.