Sundays are always extremely long days for me. Waking at 3:30am to open the restaurant, getting off the floor hopefully by 3pm and then driving to MawMaw's to get you. Usually, we get back home by 5pm and I feel a bit like a zombie. On Saturday night's Daddy always makes the drive with you to Southern Pines, so I can have an hour or so to myself. This Saturday night, I actually took the time to shave because I'd like to wear shorts sometime this summer and not scare the children at the park into thinking Sasquatch has returned. All I could think about on our drive home was that I needed to clean out the bathtub before I gave you a bath or you'd choke on a hairball. It wasn't something I wanted to do after working all weekend.
Every time when walk through the door, Daddy will pop out and say, "HI Baby!!". You just beam at him. If he happens to be in the shower or outside, you will search for him waiting for your greeting. Then, he'll take you to our bed and let you jump around while I wash my face. As I headed to the bathroom yesterday, to clean the tub, I smelled Comet. Daddy had already disinfected the entire bathroom and even got the soap scum off the shower door. It was the best present I could have received for Mother's Day. A way to a man's heart may be through his stomach but for a woman's heart it's keeping her house clean and loving her children.
When I got out of the bathroom, he had you on the bed with a card. I opened the card and it was a skunk saying "I'm a little Stinker" and he'd signed it, "You are the best Mommy EVER, Love Chloe." You thought the card was for you, you kept trying to rip off the skunk. If you could talk, I hope you'd say the same thing. He told me he was going to treat us to dinner and I gave you a bath in the clean tub while he picked it up.
He returned with my favorite pizza, wings and Nerds. Daddy has turned us into Nerd addicts. I don't think I'd eaten a Nerd since I was nine, at the movies. The last few months, he'll come home with a box of Nerds and we'll share them in bed at night. He'll just pour them into his mouth put I like to pour mine into a little pile on my blanket and savor them one at a time. He even has shared them with you and you'll walk over and open your mouth when you see the box.
But last night, he found rainbow Nerds, in a theather sized box. He was real excited about it and already opened the box on the way home. I picked up the box which I thought was sealed and Rainbow Nerds scattered all over the kitchen floor. You were on them like Donkey Kong. I never have seen you move so fast. You dropped to the kitchen floor like Vanilla Ice and scurried around the floor like a mouse shoving Nerds into your mouth. We couldn't stop laughing. I joked it would be a good activity to keep you busy, the "Raining Nerds" game.
We all ate pizza together and you devoured your slice, even the mushrooms.
When you got to the crust, you held it like your blankie. Cradling it close to your face so you could give it some love.
By the time we finished dinner, it was late and you were ready for bed. Daddy and I headed to bed too, with the box of Nerds. I was taste testing all the flavors of the rainbow(I like the tangy ones best) and he pulled another card out of the nightstand.
"You are a wonderful mother to Chloe and I see that everyday by how much you love her. It makes me love you even more. She will one day look back and see that and thank you so much for being there every step of the way. She couldn't ask for a better mother and teacher. Thank you for allowing me to be there and see it. I love you and Chloe so very much."
I am not an overly emotional person. Tears sprung from my eyes after I read those words. I guess Mother's Day is special because we are told that we are appreciated. That our love and work to be a good mother doesn't always go unnoticed. I hope one day, you will tell and feel the same things that were written in that card.
No comments:
Post a Comment