3rd Mother's Day

This picture has nothing to do with this past weekend, but it makes me happy.

This Mother's Day was full of irony, like being woken up at 4:30am by a feverish boy who was vomitting on me. He had developed a nasty sinus infection over the weekend and so we spent most of our Mother's Day with him burning up with a 103 fever and laying pitifully across my chest.

Evan and Marino brought me breakfast in bed, with some pretty flowers and adorable cards. Marino was sooooo proud of the gifts; he kept saying "I bought these flowers for you. Wasn't that sweet, Mommy?" All day he kept shouting "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!" At one point we talked to my mom on speakerphone and Marino said "Happy Mother's Day" but she didn't hear him. He started giving the phone a dirty look out the side of his eye and said "I SAID HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY". He was very annoyed she didn't immediately respond with glee (which she of course did once she heard him). The boy likes lots of attention!

A few months ago, one of my Facebook friends posed the question "What does it feel like to be a mother?". I responded with a haiku I had written shortly before she asked the question.

the depth of my love

infinite and surprising

every time you say "mommy"

Of course, that is just a tiny expression of the way it feels to be a mother - how do you a describe a feeling that changes who you are and all of your priorities? Not a day goes by that I don't have a moment where I marvel at the greatest blessing of my life - being Marino's mom. It just gets more wonderful as time goes on.

I hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful day. Only another mother could understand what a gift it is to be a mother - lovely and terrifying, natural and challenging all at once.