Mother's Day Moments

Max's class made a Mother's Day cookbook for their mothers. Max's contribution was a recipe for Hot Dogs:

Ingredients
Hot Dogs
Ketchup
Mustard
Hot Dog Buns

Directions: First you go to the grocery store and you buy the hot dogs and the buns. Go home and cook the hot dogs and the buns on the grill. When the hot dogs have black spots on them, they're done. Then you put the hot dog on the bun and eat it with ketchup and mustard.

Sounds about right. (Except that I don't eat hot dogs, but I won't tell him that.)

Mia gave me a gift that she had won at school. A speaker from The Wildlife Federation visited her class and gave prizes for answering trivia questions. The question she answered was "What absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere?" She correctly answered "trees" and won the grand prize of gardening swag. So I got the garden tools tote and a package of poppy seeds, which she was very proud to give me.

Will wished me a Happy Mother's Day when he woke up, hair going every which way.

Husband gifted me another tote with some L'Occitane soaps and creams in it, an amazon.com Gold Box purchase. "It was a good deal." He said he'd give it to his mom if I didn't want it. Yesterday, he also followed through on "two roses bushes of the same color", a *hint* I dropped last week -- because I'd buy them anyway for two pots outside my garage.

Altogether, while the gifts are nice, of course, it's really the thought behind them all that... cracks me up.

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My blog friend Laura tagged me to write 5 things I enjoy about motherhood -- then tag five different mothers to do the same. But, other then Laura and Naturelady (who Laura also tagged), I don't really know five other moms in the blogsphere that I can tag; my readers are mostly anonymous (though I know who you are!). But if you are a mom, take a minute to think of one of two things that make it all worth it to you. Leave a Comment if you'd like, or just be indulged for the moment.

Here are my reasons:

1) I love reliving the kid stuff -- reading books, playing games, going to school, weekend mornings in your PJs forever, boxed mac and cheese.

2) I love that they think I know everything. "Mom, how can you tell if it's going to rain?" "Why do people have wars?" "What's the difference between baking soda and baking powder?"

3) I love folding their laundry, watching the clothes over the years go from the cutest thing you've ever seen to long and trendy.

4) I love watching at the three of them from a distance -- because they're funny and full of life and all mine.

5) I love it when my kids say things that show they have a clear and caring understanding of the world around them. Like, when Max (age 5) told me last week that he should take a shower instead of a bath because it takes 40 gallons of water to take a bath. Or when Will understands that a complicated plot in Star Trek involved a black hole and time travel. Obviously. Or when Mia knows that trees use carbon dioxide and give oxygen.

I love that somehow, this parenthood thing seems to be working...

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