Mommy's Day Off

When you become a parent, whether you are the caregiver or the family provider, there is never a day off. When you're sick, you're still a parent. When you are exhausted from working until 3:00 am with out of town clients, you're still a parent three and a half hours later when little bit wakes up. But in order to keep our sanity, Husband and I try to give each other a "break" every now and then. 

I let him sleep past 6:30. He lets me shower. It's the little things in life.

But, Husband outdid himself for Mother's Day and gave me a day "off." Really, what he gave me was an "Andrew Day." A few years ago, he dubbed the days in which he did whatever he wanted with no schedule and no accountability as "Andrew days." Sometimes, I would go with him. We may get a late lunch and some drinks while watching football on a fall day. We may catch a random movie. But, whatever we did, it was spontaneous - something I find difficult to do these days.

I cashed in my "Andrew Day" this past Sunday. I woke up early with Catherine, mostly because it was 5:30 and Husband was in a coma, but also because I wanted some mommy time before my day "off." We played fetch with Banks in the back yard. We watched some Sesame Street. We read some books. And I rocked her to sleep for her morning nap. Then, it was officially my day!

Because I am a planner, I had to have some sort of schedule for my day and started the day with a late brunch with my sister and my girlfriends. I can't remember the last time we were all together and it was so great catching up with everyone. We celebrated Heather's birthday and talked about new jobs and new houses and important things like the Real Housewives. I love these ladies. They keep me sane.

During brunch, I received this text from Husband: "Is it okay if she eats the yogurt dip by the handful?... Just checking..."

We're going through a dipping stage. She will eat almost anything if she can dip it in this dip, which is plain yogurt, lemon juice, and dill. Ha. Whatever works...

After brunch, a few of us ventured to get mani/pedis. It was much needed and so nice to just relax and talk about nothing in particular. 

Then Ashley and I went to see a chick flick. Husband and I take the occasional movie date night, but I wanted to see something ridiculously cheesy that I knew he would never see with me. So, we went to What to Expect When Expecting. It certainly delivered in the cheesy department, and is probably a renter, but I had so much fun hanging out with Ashley and contemplating buying CKOne and lip gloss from the machine in the bathroom.

I had the best "Andrew day!" I was able to relax, catch up with friends, and enjoy some time to myself. The best part? I came home to dinner, a fridge full of groceries, and was home in time to give C her bubble bath. Time off is needed to keep my sanity, but I'm always happy to come home to my happy little family. 

I have a beautiful life.

A Mother's Mommy

You know how sometimes, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror at a certain angle or you start dancing in the car to your favorite new song or you catch yourself saying things like, "nothing good happens after midnight" and you think, I am officially my mother. 


Luckily, I can't think of a better person to see in my reflection. 


I may look like my dad, but there is no doubt that I am my mother's daughter. We are so very similar from the way we make to do lists with things already done on them (just so we can cross them off) to the way we cry uncontrollably during a Publix Mother's Day commercial. 


The simple similarities make me stand back and laugh a little at times, realizing that the older I get, the more and more I act just like her. Whether it's spending 10 minutes making a bow for a present or rearranging the living room by myself at 11:00 pm because I just had a feeling it could look better. But it is the greater moments that I have experienced these past fourteen months, that make me realize that everything I am as a mother, I learned from her. 


Whether she realizes it or not, all those years she was lovingly raising me from lullabies and bubble baths to dance recitals and boyfriends, she was teaching me how to be a mom. I often find myself singing the same songs she sung to me as a child and reading the same books with the same inflections. As I read I'll Love You Forever to C before bed, I am five years old again in a room decorated in stenciled sheep, leaning on Mom's shoulder. When I sing My Favorite Things at bath time, I am six years old, in a pink and blue tiled bathroom, having my long curly hair rinsed clean with a plastic cup as I tell Mom all about my day. When I serve my family dinner and sit down to join them, I feel the same warmth and fullness that was felt at our family dinner table over something as simple and delicious as Chicken Divan.


It's easy to overlook the subtleties and the mundane of each passing day, to let them pass by without paying them a bit of attention. But, it is the mundane moments that will shape my daughter into the mother she will hopefully become one day. Something as seemingly insignificant as our car conversations and sing-a-longs will one day be something she shares with her children. The way I brush her hair and snuggle her in my lap as we read a book before bed, will be the way she does it.


How do I know these things? Because I learned them all from my mommy.


It is nearly impossible to thank someone for a lesson as great as motherhood; but today, on my second Mother's Day, I am thankful for the woman who taught me everything I know and who is an even better grandmother than she is a mother. Thank you for always being there to sing, to love, and to listen. These were the greatest gifts you could ever give me.


Happy Mother's Day!