Mother’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. My kids are in that wonderful age of school projects that feature hand prints with poems and flowers made of tissue paper. I treasure every sweet craft they make for me.
But some of my most precious gifts are not the ones they make for the occasion. No, the gifts I love these days are the ones they deliver without a reason, and often, without realization. I’m the mom of two boys and I am their favorite girl.
I love the Lego minifigs who’ve taken up residence on my nightstand. All of them were created with me in mind, often featuring a girl’s head on a mismatched body. I love the pictures of kittens and princesses colored pink in honor of me. I hang them in my office because I’ve run out of space on the refrigerator and walls. I even love the paper-folded monsters that I find waiting on my jewelry box or pillow. I have special containers where I place these treasures. I plan to revisit them when the day comes that their love notes no longer involve me.
A few nights ago Will crawled into my lap and said, “I just miss you when you’re at work.”
Today after a mom’s lunch at Max’s school, my brave third grade boy gave me a kiss outside his classroom before I left.
And last night, both boys woke me up with bad dreams and sniffles. Then ten minutes before my 5 am work-out alarm, Will came in. “I just can’t sleep,” he whisper whined.
There was a time when I would have been furious. I would have sent him back to bed immediately. This is my only chance to work-out, I would fume. Now I’m going to be tired all day. He’s manipulating. He’s lying. He’s ruining my day.
But nine years into my parenting journey, I’ve learned a little something about the precious, unexpected moments that I don’t want to miss.
So I turned off my alarm and I let him climb in. He snuggled up to me, soft and warm from sleep. He grabbed my hand and pulled it around him.
“I love you, Mama,” he said. Then promptly fell asleep still holding my hand.
I couldn’t extricate myself to go work-out. My date with Shaun T and Insanity would have to wait.
The best Mother’s Day gift in the world was sleeping beside me and no work-out could ever drag me away.
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