Happy Mother's Day!

I had a lovely Mother's Day weekend and I hope all you other moms out there did as well.

On Saturday, we hosted a Mother's Day brunch for both grandmothers. Madeline made watering can cards (out of cardstock) and tucked seed packets in a slit I created with a sharp knife. We then wrote "Sowing seeds of love on Mother's Day" on the cards (a little cheesy, but the grandmas loved them). Madeline added the finishing touches - lots of dots and green scribbles made with markers. We served a breakfast casserole, coffee flavored with dark chocolate and cinnamon (yummy!), blueberry crumble bread, a colorful fruit salad with mango, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, kiwi and banana and mimosas with fresh squeezed OJ for the guest of honors. Gaba (my mom) and Nana (my husband Dave's mom) both had a bright flower arrangement at their place settings. We ate, talked and watched Madeline dance to Farmer Jason's "Do the Doggie Dance." It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday.

On Sunday, I was treated like a queen. We went to Mass last evening, so I lounged in bed while Dave and Madeline worked downstairs in the kitchen. They first brought me a cup of coffee laced with cream and cinnamon. I sipped the cup while I wrote a lengthy journal entry to our little butterbean who we will soon be meeting. I'm almost 34 weeks and at my appointment this week I was measuring small because our love has already dipped into the pelvic region. I've been calling her a "low rider" because I felt she had dropped somewhat. Now I know I'm not crazy and that she is, in fact, getting eager to make her grand debut. Yippee!

Just as I was finishing my journal entry to her Dave and Madeline came upstairs with my breakfast displayed on a tray. Maddy handed me two cards and said, "Happy Mother's Day!" She had "signed" her card with ink scribbles and Dave's card nearly made me cry as he praised my mothering and thanked me for taking care of Madeline and our growing baby. Breakfast included a delicious egg scramble marbled with bits of bacon, mushroom, and green and red peppers, a whole wheat English muffin and a small bowl of leftover fruit salad. It was delicious and so was the company - Madeline sitting between my legs, facing me and opening her mouth like a small bird for mushroom and bits of kiwi (her new favorite fruit, she informed me) and Dave beside me in bed also noshing on some breakfast. Later we all took a nap together and then headed to a park where Madeline played in a creek, swung high into the sky in a bucket swing pushed by Daddy and slid down a long, winding slide. We came home and Dave made dinner while Madeline and I drew train tracks with chalk on our patio for Thomas the Engine.

I felt like the luckiest woman alive. I'd started my morning by reading in a journal I kept during Madeline's first year of life. One of the first sentences I wrote was "I'm in love with motherhood." Madeline was a week old and even though I realized right away that the role of mother isn't nearly as straightforward as I thought it would be, I was already in love with my new job. Even now when I feel like a beached whale as I enter my ninth month of pregnancy and long for shuteye like I used to long for a cute pair of jeans that were the perfect fit, I'm having the time of my life embracing this whole mothering gig.