Day 9 --
After nine days, I've already learned something from this project: my 'best years' are not behind me but rather, are right in front of me. My happiest times have been the last six years of my life, even with all the downs that I've had in that time too.
It's absolutely impossible to describe the changes parenthood brings about in one's self to anyone who isn't a parent. Everything in your world changes in a blink and nothing in life can prepare you for that moment. I put being a mother above everything and I've never felt like all of myself could be summed up into one, singular word before but "mother" does it for me now. There is no name for me that makes me feel the way "Mom" does.
Motherhood is never just fun and fluffy good-ness; it's chaos; it's blood and scabs and boogers on your wall; it's late nights in the E.R. and never sleeping in on Saturdays AGAIN. It's more work than anything you've ever done in your entire life, more work than you'll ever do and yet we love it. We embrace it. And that's before we go to our jobs! Working moms don't get anywhere near enough credit for what they do every day, without complaint (or at least very little, right??). I've already posted pictures from each of their Birth days but I have millions of others I treasure. Here are a few:
--The Spring after his third birthday, on our way to the store. He didn't want to leave the house without his skateboard and I couldn't say no, even knowing it would double our walking time (maybe triple).--
It's absolutely impossible to describe the changes parenthood brings about in one's self to anyone who isn't a parent. Everything in your world changes in a blink and nothing in life can prepare you for that moment. I put being a mother above everything and I've never felt like all of myself could be summed up into one, singular word before but "mother" does it for me now. There is no name for me that makes me feel the way "Mom" does.
--The Spring after his third birthday, on our way to the store. He didn't want to leave the house without his skateboard and I couldn't say no, even knowing it would double our walking time (maybe triple).--
Watching him grow has been the most amazing thing ever. I can fully understand what my dad felt as a parent, watching me grow up. The pride, the fear, the apprehension, the elation you can only get from being a parent...I know he's a gift in a million ways; something to be treasured and adored. He deserves my respect and understanding; he will teach me as much as I teach him and I look forward to that.
Most importantly, I realize his greatness depends on mine and in order for him to success in life, I must give him the tools and teach him to use them. It's this fact, if no other, that creates a drive in me to be the best mom I can be and to take pride in the fact that I am a mother.
-- Bubble machine on a cold April day in Portland, long before #2 came into existence <3 --
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