This was originally published at
https://youngandnewmoms.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/enjoy-today-mamma/
I have this little postcard stuck on my bathroom wall so that each time I surreptitiously sneak in to pee - darting away from the almost-4-year-old and almost-1-year-old - I emerge a better, patient version of my mommy self. Each time I recite a different phrase as I delicately dodge a toy farm animal lying here or a half chewed piece of the new helicopter lying under the chair, while glancing to check if one of the kids hasn't accidentally eaten the uncooked ball of dough lying in front of the toy dog.
Almost-4-year-old and almost-1-year-old.
Whoa.
Just how did they get to be so big? Kid 1 was a dolly handed to me- me- a blubbering mass of nerves and haywire hormones - and she clung to me (still does, falls asleep only while clutching my elbow) - fashioning me into the confident mom that I am today. Her birthdays have gone by in a blur- but her firsts - tooth/ vacation/ word/ walk are all preserved carefully in the labyrinths of my mind, aided by my able iphone.
They say one is more carefree with the second child and this couldn't be truer in my case. What she lost by virtue of arriving second, she makes up in cuteness. Her responses to my conversations with her leave me as amazed as the pride I feel when Kid1 uses long words like 'complicated' and 'fascinated' correctly. Each new milestone leaves me amazed as I wonder at this beautiful cherub I created.
And I realise it myself- I'm happy. My day may be filled with a seamless list of things to do as I flit from one chore to the next - but at the end of the day, when my creaking bones let out a long sigh of their own and I'm washed over by waves of exhaustion, I'm a happy tired.
I'm a happy contented mum, willing to be a camera for all their lives - I only wish that my camera had more slow motion videos so I could enjoy today more!
