Mother's Day Part I: For my mom

Today we spent the day in Canton with my mom and dad. Liam was so excited this morning when he was told we would be going to see Grandma and Grandpa in Canton. He kept saying "Go Canton Dog? Where's Nannie? Where's Papa"the WHOLE way to Canton.

Once there he got to go to the library with Daddy and Papa and to the meat shop to pick up steaks for dinner. And when he got back home Mommy and Grandma took him to the little playground a half block away. He demonstrated his excellent rock climbing skills for Grandma and due to some leftover rainwater at the top of the slide his pants got soaked. Which turned out to be a good thing as this made him go extremely slow when going down the slides.

During naptime Mom and I went to the nursery and she helped me pick out plants for my pots. Despite my insistence, she wouldn't pick anything out for herself and even paid for my flowers. I thought this was Mother's day coming up, wasn't I supposed to get her something? My wonderful mother said just me coming home to spend the day with her was enough and she didn't need anything else. I hope I can remember this sentiment when Liam is 30 years old.

She also thanked me for making her a mother, or since I was the last of four, for turning out so great to finish things off. But then stated that all of her daughters have turned out great and she could have stopped with any one of us. To which I told her she saved the best for last.

So now I will say: Thanks for being such a great Mom! Thanks for all the important lessons you taught me over the years like how annoying it is when someone replies with 'I don't know'.  How when you commit to something, like piano or the trumpet, you do it your best. Even if that means staying home from your French class field trip to practice because I didn't do it for four previous days and I had a lesson coming up. Thanks for allowing me to be the social butterfly and try new things that my sisters had not done, like cheerleading and going to every single dance. Thanks for allowing me to date Evan, and go on vacation with his family, and eat dinner with his family even though it was just you and me at home. I kind of forgot about you a lot when I was 17 didn't I? Sorry about that. Thanks for helping us put our first home together. For always having creative ideas on ways we can redo our kitchen, landscaping our yard, painting our stairwell and teaching me how to follow and sew a pattern. And thank you for giving me the best example of how to be a loving mother to my own son. For teaching me how to include God in our lives and in our parenting.

Thanks Mom! You're the best!