mommy

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Thank you for going with me when he wouldn’t.
For letting me be the over-the-top ham that I can be sometimes.
For driving me to drama class and sitting through every last swim practice.
For teaching me how to dress. Ahem.
For putting my hair in rag curls and playing beauty parlor with Lea and me.
For giving me a sister, even though, after the nightmare that was me, you didn’t want any more babies.
For wrapping my presents with all-different loud wrapping papers, so each one looked as if it was sent by a different friend or elf.
For throwing birthday parties for me, lighting all the candles, and always encouraging me to sing.
For driving when the other mothers wouldn’t, for helping me with all the school projects that involved food, especially when you taught me how to make fried spring rolls!
Thank you for letting me crawl into bed with you. Just hearing you breathe made me feel better.
Thank you for being mine. I love you Mommy.

Just before I read to my children I announce that it’s story time and match the words up to the sign language. Now I can simply do the sign, and they dart to the book shelf and look up, waiting. "Are You My Mother?" is a small book I’ve been reading to them over and over lately. A baby bird is born, and his mother is off finding some food. The baby bird wants to find his mother. "Are you my mother?" he asks a kitten. I meow until Abigail meows back. I cluck like a hen, then moo like the "vaca." I say all the animals in both Spanish and English, following with the sounds the animals make. I’ve even learned to do an enviable elephant. I come to a page where the baby bird is convinced his mother is a scary "snort" (a bulldozer-like crane). Just as I’m about to snort, Lucas comes over and begins to snort, just like a little round pigglet. Abigail stares. He snorts again. I snort. Abigail giggles. Then she runs away. She races back for the very last page, scooting her way into my lap.

"I" I whisper to them both, "am YOUR mother."

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COMMENTS:

  1. Seeing how amazing you look at 118 pounds, what keeps you from going on an extreme diet to recapture that?

  2. I hope you had a very happy Mother's Day!! I love the last line of this post…And the snorting and giggling. Picturing it is just too cute!

  3. What a lovely post. I envy your ability to express your emotions so openly. The photos are priceless. Wow, your mom is beautiful! You and Lea both resemble her.

  4. Wonderful photos of you & your family. I loved the photo of your parents with your Mom pregnant, really cute. Hope you had a great Mother's Day.

  5. The word diet should be prohibited from the English Language. To be healthy and slim for your body type you just need moderation in your food portions and exercise, it is not a secret. I finally "got" it after my kid was born and I've been happy with my body ever since (for the first time in my life, I might add)

  6. I'm so curious to read "Moose". You've said that it provides some insight into your relationships with food and your mother (two things I could use a little clarity on myself). We hear quite a lot about your relationship with food here, but only bits and pieces of your mom and it's really intriguing.

  7. OK for all of you "why not go on that extreme diet" types out there…….I am 51 and I weigh 152. I am 5'4". And you know what – that picture of me in Florida when I was 23 wearing that Gottex bathing suit in Melborne, back when my boyfriend Jack was telling me how fat I was? Well I looked damn good – I was 125. And anyone who thinks they look bad at whatever weight they are, well you are probably wrong. If I work with one more person who peauks up another meal, or asks how many calories in (pick your food)….there are more important things, like being healthy. Like being able to be someone's mother, like having healthy bones at 51 or 61. Or 81. There are more important things than living someone's fantasy about what you should look like. Few women tell men what to look like….why do we let men tell us?

  8. Oh my God, that brought back memories. "Are You My Mother?" was one of my son's favorite books when he was a toddler. I think I've read it to him hundreds of times. Great book.

  9. That's my absolute favorite book from childhood. I still have my pale blue, tattered copy on my shelf.

  10. What lovely pics.. I like the one of you holding your mommy's hand as a curly-haired toddler. So sweet. And your essay made me laugh out loud. I wrote a similar essay when I was in first grade, but I mistakenly guessed that my 31-year-old mother was 45. Which she, of course, LOVED.

    And I had to chuckle at Eve's comment. I don't know about Stephanie, but the words "extreme diet" keep me from going on an extreme diet. Give me healthy diet, exercise and the occasional slice of cheesecake any day.

  11. First, the Moose stories. Then, the incident with Lea and her baby bottle. Now, the witch costume (and the comment attached thereto in flickr). Judd Apatow couldn't have made you up. Could he? The whole thing's dying to be turned into a screen play.

  12. Such a sweet post…hope you had a lovely mother's day. I did..I had two orgasms and two mimosas plus a fillet mignon…bliss

  13. A book I remember fondly from my childhood. My grandmother always used to read it to me and now i've passed it along to my nieces.

    Great book.

  14. This was beautiful. I'm sorry—I know I'm behind, but I didn't want to miss the chance to say something to you about it.

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