Mother's Day Memories...

Mother's Day is fast approaching and I was thinking ahead to one of my favorite days of the year. I was thinking how strange it will be to not be near my mom. I hope that we can make her feel loved and celebrated from a distance. I am wracking my brain for good gift ideas that we don't need to take a loan out for shipping!

Then I was thinking about one of my most favorite Mother's Day memories. Brielle was three and had spent the night at my parents the night before. Nana let me have a sleep in as part of my Mother's Day gift. When Brielle walked in she was holding a gift bag and was beyond proud and excited. She hopped onto the bed and said, "Happy Mama's Day, I shopped at Nana's house for you"! It was all she could do to not rip the entire gift apart for me.

One by one I lifted out each item and with each one I oohed and awed and her face beamed with pride. Here is what was in the bag:

a travel size perfume (a sample from avon)
tylenol
bubble bath
baby powder (travel size)
travel wipes
and a tampon

We sat on the bed chatting with my mom and Erik and she said, "mommy, I need to give this medicine to Daddy cuz he gets headaches at his work" to which I replied, "ok, honey that is so nice of you". Not two minutes later she tells me that baby Taya needs the wipes. "Sure honey, no problem"! She decided that she would keep the bubble bath for herself and give nana back the perfume. Leaving me with? Yup, the tampon!!

The funniest part was when she had realized that she had re-gifted all my gifts she dug in the bag one last time, pulled out the tampon and said, "mama I saved this one for you and it is very special because I don't even know what it is and it is still wrapped"!

My mom and Erik laughed so hard they had tears streaming down their faces and all I could say was how appropriate!

Here we are 10 years later and it is one of my funniest memories. Being their mom has been my greatest honor, my biggest challenge. The moments I am most proud of revolve around parenting them. The things I carry the most remorse and shame for are for "bad days or moments" parenting them. And my best laughs and biggest smiles have always come from my children. I look at Brielle today and think where did the time go? I will savor this time I have left with my girls, even on the days it feels like all I am left with is a tampon!