My Mother's Day Experience

6:45 a.m.
I'm awoken out of a deep sleep by the sound of dishes clanging together close to the bed.  I open my eyes and see Charlie setting a tray on the bed.  Noelle is still asleep next to me -- apparently he took Mother's day breakfast into his lone hands on this special-for-me morning.

I wish the first words out of my mouth were, "Thank you!"  Instead I think I mumbled something about how it was 6:45 in the morning.  He pointed out that I could eat it later and he was just leaving it for me, but I saw that there was cereal involved, and I think we know what happens to cereal when it sits in a bowl of milk for too long.  I set myself straight, sat up, and proceeded to thank him for putting this together.  As it turns out there wasn't just cereal.  The big bowl was Chocolate Cheerios with milk.  Next to that was a mug of chocolate milk.  And next to that was a bowl of Gardetto's snack mix leftover from my crop yesterday.

Interesting.

He explained later that he chose all of my favorites that he could see.  Isn't that thoughtful?  Like a good mother I did the only thing I could -- thanked him and ate every single bite.

They each had classroom made gifts to give me, which I think are my favorite part of the day every year.  Charlie had the sweetest card with this poem called My Mom.  My mom is very special / My mom is very kind / My mom tells me I'm special / She's always on my mind.  It came with an I Love You bookmark with his picture on it.  Love it!  Noelle gave me a place mat that has her picture, a drawn picture of me and a little list of her favorite things about me.  The highlight, though, was the card.  The teachers give them the first words of a sentence and the kids fill the rest in.

Mom you are pretty a lot.  (But not always, right?)
Mom you smell like a butterfly.  (This really could have gone badly.)
I love when you cook hole made ice cream.  (Yes, we make it in a hole.)
You love to take me on a date.  (This is true -- love the mommy daughter dates.)
You look pretty when you are in make-up.  (Because look out when I'm not!)

I think the teachers do this on purpose.  And I love it.  See two years ago here.

The next hour and a half I just lounged and watched a few episodes of 30 Rock from the tivo list.  I could have gone on like that for a while, but decided to take a shower.  My privacy and peace lasted all of five minutes, at which time Noelle came in crying about having been called stupid, not once, but TWICE!  I pointed out to her that I was in the shower and there wasn't a lot I could do.  Apparently this didn't satisfy her need for justice in this travesty, and I was treated to some more drama as I lathered, rinsed and repeated.  In the end I believe I managed to get Charlie's attention with a little banging on the wall, got him to apologize and they went back to their morning.  All this while I conditioned.

The rest of my Mother's Day was fairly simple.  We watched "Enchanted" with popcorn.  They played in the garage while I napped a bit.  (Does that sound bad?  Their father was here, so I could relax for a little while.)  The weather was rather depressing but that didn't stop Noelle from spending as much time outside as she could.  She's taken a sudden interest in basketball and wants to dribble nonstop.  It's fun teaching her what little I know about it.

Overall, a decent Mother's Day, though next year I hope to make some actual plans out of the house.  I wouldn't hate being away at a hotel where the room service could deliver the Cheerios and snack mix at a slightly later hour.