May 12

This Mother's Day, I've been  thinking a lot about all of the moms I know. I feel so blessed that I don't have to do this motherhood thing on my own. Of course, I have my wonderful husband to walk alongside me on this journey. But I also have a whole (is this cheesy?) sisterhood of mom-friends, who are currently living the same struggles and blessings as I am. And even better, I have an army of mom-mentors, who have lived the parenthood thing through to the other side, and can give me their best "hindsight is 20-20" advice. And best of all, I have my own mom and mother-in-law, who are so good at holding their tongues and not bombarding me with unsolicited advice, yet consistently offering me support and encouragement. Between family and church and my MOPS group and social media, I always have someone to turn to who has "been there, done that" and is willing to offer a sympathetic ear. I am never alone, and this Mother's Day I realize that makes me a lucky, lucky mama.

I suppose it's also my own darling children that make me a lucky mama. But today, I absolutely earned my Mother's Day celebration. Poor Daisy's current illness is shaping up to be a really, really awful cold. Like, I can't remember the last time she was this miserable. Last night, she woke up screaming every 45 minutes. 

Every. 45. Minutes.

All night.

Finally around midnight, I decided that I was just going to bring her into bed with me. If all she wanted was to be held and snuggle with me (not Daddy - oh, no. Definitely not Daddy!), then at least I'd be comfortable in bed while we snuggled. It worked pretty well, only she wanted to be rightnexttome the whole time. Her face in mine. Wrapped in my arms. Buried in my armpit. She slept well, but me? Not so much. By 2 am, I remembered why I had been so anxious to get Daisy out of my bed by her first birthday. So I mustered up all of my courage and put the girl back in her crib. And miraculously, she slept. It was only until not quite 6 am, but still. It was four hours of sleep for me and for Chris.

My Mother's Day requests were to sleep in and to have mealtimes taken care of. But it turned out those requests were mutually exclusive on a Sunday morning, so I got up at 7 so that we could go to breakfast before church. So. Breakfast, then church, then home, then a nap for Caleb, but not for Daisy who just laid noisily in her crib for a few hours. But she didn't scream, so there's that. And I got to lie down for a few hours. While the kids napped, I sent Chris out to buy me a Mother's Day gift: a NoseFrida snot sucker. Poor Daisy's nose was that bad. I've yet to use the NoseFrida, but Chris has. He says it's awesome.

After naps, the kids played outside. Daisy was only willing to play when I was out of sight; as soon as she saw me, she wanted to snuggle. So I held her on the porch while the boys played.

See? I came outside and Daisy quit playing and started fussing.

What the last 24 hours have looked like. Poor Caleb has been so patient.

There. Me with my children on Mother's Day. Funny that next year there will be three of them!

Then Caleb wanted a turn with the camera. 

Daddy supervised this one, but when he was convinced Caleb could safely handle the camera, he joined us for a picture.

Caleb's getting pretty good!

Then, of course, Daisy wanted a turn with the camera. 

Not bad for a two-year-old holding a camera that's a quarter of her body weight!

While Daisy and I snuggled, the boys played hockey in the driveway. I wish I could bottle the sound of Caleb's delighted laughter; it's the best medicine ever.

Finally, I got Daisy off my lap. She went to play with her umbrella.  

Where's Daisy?

Peek-a-boo!