Motherhood, it's a Funny Thing

After I got back from Japan, it took me a while to get the house in order and myself adjusted to everything. Although, it seems like life just comes at you no matter what.

I have been away for only 2 weeks, but boy there are so many things we mothers go thorough emotionally and physically each day...

I will share some of the examples of what I mean;

Example 1:

We had our family night one Monday, went out for ice cream, then came back home. We told the kids to go upstairs to get ready for bed. I was in the kitchen cleaning up and packing their lunches for the next day, when all of a sudden; "BANG!!!!".

I froze. Mr. TRH runs up the stairs and found Michael on the floor. He fell off the bunk bed. It knocked the wind out of him, he was so pail... he told us that his wrist hurt and showed us the arm. It was SO obvious that it was broken.

We immediately piled in the car to rush to the emergency room. He was telling the doctor that he was "slowly" walking on the top bunk and stood up on the rail... Mr. TRH and I were giving each other glances and understood what he was doing. He was probably doing Ninja moves and running on the bed instead of "slowly walking", and slipped and fell. After a while they needed to fix his arm and sedated him, but when he came out of the sedation, he was extremely nauseated and I saw it was coming fast!

There was nothing to catch it and I... I caught it with my hands! Bahh... I have no idea why I did that, but it was a natural instinct as a mom. Sigh...

He is ok now, got a lot of attention, his cast signed and everything. Mr. TRH taught him a phrase to say when people ask him what happened, "I got into a fight, you should see the other guy" ha-ha.

We went home at 2 AM that night, so tired buy relieved it wasn't anything worse. He scared me to death!

Example 2:

My oldest son Christopher has been working hard this summer and started to earn some merit badges. I was happy for his accomplishments until Mr. TRH said, "Hey, you need to sew them onto his sash." Ugh, have you sewn scout badges? They are kind of hard to sew. Also, it is horrible for me to say this but it's not creative sewing, so it's not something I want to do.

As soon as he said that, a million ways to cut corners went through my mind. Can I use a glue gun? How about gorilla glue or can I staple it?

Well, I decided to do the conventional way and started to saw. Then a funny thing happened. As I was sewing each one of the badges, I remembered how much effort he put in to earn them and how excited he was. By the time when I was done sewing all of them, I was ready for more. I asked him "Where are the other merit badges? Keep it coming, buddy!"

Example 3;

One Friday I picked the kids up from school as usual, and then Michael said "Mom, I need a poster!"

My response was "What poster?"

"Mooooom (with a nasally voice), it's my birthday next week I need a poster to show the class."

Really?! I already had a bunch of things I needed to do that weekend, where am I going to squeeze in the time to make a poster? Well, to start with, I had to stop by the store to buy poster board and other stuff, it's not like I have those things just lying around. Just like the merit badge story, once I started, I was having fun making it.

I am guessing that just like the Grinch’s heart got bigger and bigger, us mother's hearts expand as we do things for the kids? No matter how busy we get, no matter how tired we get. Even when I went to Japan, the first few hours I was so excited for the "vacation" by myself, and then I started missing them even before I reached Japan.

Everything I saw, everything I ate, I always wished that they were there to experience with me... sounds corny, but I was thinking that the saying: "A mother holds her children’s hands for a while, but their hearts forever". I feel like it was the other way around, they got a hold of my heart forever. I was never alone in my thoughts while I was away. Isn't it funny, even though life gets so crazy and you get frustrated with them for many reasons, you love them more and more each day.

Ok, I have a funny story to tell you... I made the birthday week poster for Michel, and the day of his birthday, I was supposed to bring a treats for his whole class. I jumped into the shower, got dressed but my hair was still messy and no make-up on my face. I was trying to get the kids ready for school packing their lunches, washing dishes and all. Then, I felt like someone was watching. When I turned it was Michael.

I said "What?"

He said sheepishly, "Can I ask you something?"

"What do you wanna ask?"

"Um...are you wearing pajamas? Or is that clothes?"

I started to laugh so hard! Ok, here are the pictures of the dress I wore that day;

It is one of the dresses I bought while I was in Japan. Yeah, I can understand why he asked the question he asked. Picture me with that dress, messy bun, no make-up. No boots or scarf... oh yeah, half pulled up socks too. He must have thought that "Why did she take a shower and get dressed in different pajamas???"

Michael LOVES when I am dressed up and look nice. The other two kids couldn't care less. Isn't it funny how they are all different? I think he was a little worried that I might show up to his school wearing my new pajamas.

I am still learning this "Motherhood" thing and I guess I will never be done learning. Each stage of family life brings a different dimension to it. I just hope that I am always ready for new things, be humble enough to be teachable by the experiences and enjoy the ride. What is your take on motherhood?