Mommyhood

It's funny how with our planning for travel mixed with the holidays, I have been reflecting a lot on being a mommy.  There are certain skills that I have acquired with mommyhood that I simply don't think I could have acquired any other way.  These are including, but not limited to the following:

• Scraping soggy Apple Jacks out of the sink drain no longer makes me gag
• I can distinguish exactly what kind of emotion my children are experiencing according to the pitch, volume, and frequency of their cry/scream and I know when I need to run and when they need to take a sit in THE chair.
• Snot bubbles no loner make me flinch.
• I can beat all of my children on nearly every game on Webkinz.

One of the other things I love about being a mom is getting to see the world through the perspective of a child.   Sometimes they say the funniest things.  Here's a couple of my favorites from the last week or so:

• Isaac says to Abby as we're preparing to leave for our co-op Christmas party, "If this ends up being another surprise baby shower, I just don't think I can handle it."
• Said by Lily to Elizabeth as she was describing our trip to Babies R Us. " They had this place where the babies could play, but we didn't bring r baby because he was in Eseepoia."

One of the highlights of being a mother for me was definitely my first Christmas as a mom.  I don't think I'll ever forget that Christmas.  I have always loved Christmas.  It was always a very special time at our house.  I always "knew" that it was about the birth of Christ, but I didn't KNOW that.  But the first Christmas after we had Abby, it was as if someone had flipped a switch and Christmas had so much more significance for me. Every song, every reading of the Christmas story, and especially every mention of Mary brought tears to my eyes that year.  I would gaze at my baby and imagine that journey to Bethlehem, that birth in a stable, and I would just cry over the sacrifice that was made for me.  What a blessing of mommyhood that has been!

With that said, I need to go get back to my number one job, that of being a mommy and a wife.  I don't want to miss a moment of these special days!