Mom

I haven’t written since 2016 and I think I’ve only written once since LJ has been born. I’ve dropped the ball on several occasions for weeks that I said that I would post, but didn’t as something inevitably consumed my week. I’m pretty much the weakest link when it comes to this sisters’ blog. And here we are again on a Thursday evening and I’m about to blow my week…yet again. I’m tired. I got little rest this past weekend as we celebrated my promotion on Friday (yay!) and St. Paddy’s Day on Saturday (fun!). LJ has been sick since Tuesday (sad face), I was out on Wednesday with him (another sad face), and now I have three billion things that I have to catch up on for work (emoji with staring big eyes). Oh, AND we are trying to put our house on the market so I’m running around every night trying to keep the place manageable for when we finally list it and have our open house. Whew.

In my head I have all these good ideas for a post (update on being a working mom, my promotion to Major, updates on LJ, a rant on the lack of maternity care in the proposed health care bill, etc)  but I’m just going to keep it short. I’m just going to write the post and consider it good enough.

Originally, when planning for my week to post, I was going to write about my promotion because I knew it would be a significant, happy event for me that I would want to remember. However, fortunately our Public Affairs office already did a pretty spectacular job capturing that on social media. So I’m just going to tell you two short stories from this weekend that left an impression on me.

The first is about the best card I received as a part of my promotion and congratulatory wishes. LJ’s daycare had “helped” him make me a card and I received it Thursday night after he got home. It read, “At work you are now a Major” on the front and on the inside it read “But at home you will always be Mom.” The damn card made me tear up. First of all, I thought it was pretty special that his daycare would take time out to make me such a personalized card. Second, it is so true. At work I wear my uniform, for the most part look somewhat put together, and for the most part have my work organized and know what I am doing. But at the end of the day, I’m still just mom. I come home and put on my robe that has spit up, food, and snot smeared all over it (see above unedited picture!). I crawl on the floor with my son. I make funny faces and babble baby talk. LJ doesn’t care what rank I wear or what I’ve accomplished at work that day. All he cares about is getting snuggles from me and that’s all that matters.

The second is about an interaction I had with another mom friend that came to our St. Paddy’s party this past weekend. She has a five month old. I haven’t seen her or met him since he was born so this was my first time seeing them together as mom and son. I could have asked what seem like the obligatory questions for a new mom: How’s he sleeping? Is he a “good” baby? However, I’ve learned from my own experience that those questions are not at all helpful. First of all, I despise how a baby’s sleep has become the holy grail of parenting. Like somehow if your kid sleeps through the night, you are a good parent. Second, what is a “good” baby anyway? One that never cries? They all cry. How can a baby be “bad”?! At any rate, I stayed away from those questions (and recommend you do too, readers!) and simply just asked how she was doing being back at work and balancing all of life’s obligations. We vented to each other for awhile and admitted to each other that most of the time we have no idea what we are doing. And at the end of the night, I made sure to tell her she was doing a great job. And the next morning, I texted her the same thing. That she was doing a great job and was an awesome mom. Because that, folks, in my experience, can mean the world when you are a mom (or a dad) in the thick of things – having someone that listens and empathizes and someone that tells us we are doing a good job.