It's so strange to me that last year on Mother's Day I discovered that I was going to be a mama. It was really a fabulous unexpected surprise since that very day we decided that it was time to start a family when little did we know, it was already in the works. I can't imagine going back to life without Gabby. She really brings so much joy to my life! Right this minute she is sleeping and I really want to wake her up so that I can snuggle her and give her lots of hugs and squeezes. And at this very moment I think about all the things I have to learn. Boy it's a good thing my mama is just a phone call away and I can ask her for her motherly advice.
I am so grateful for my mama. I sure wish I would have taken notes along the way as to how she handled every situation that came her way. Like back in the day when I was in the 11th grade, I walked into health just in time for the teacher to announce that we were "going to be pinching each others fat and finding out our body fat percentages". Sweet. I couldn't wait to get out of there! What a great day to ruin any high school students self esteem. So right after the teacher took the roll I darted out the door. Clever me, she would never know I was missing. There was no way I was going to be pinching my fat or anyone else's for that matter.
Therefore, I met up with my friends and together we ditched 3rd hour. We kicked back at my friend Lanae's house since her parents were out of town. Life couldn't get any better. I had fooled my Health teacher. That is until I got home and my mom said
"So how was school today?"
"Good", I told her. How could she possibly know?
"So what did you do in health today?"
HUH??!!! How did she know??? NO? She couldn't have? I quickly dodged the bullet. "Ah, you know not much."
"Really??So what did you do instead of going to Health?"
Apparently I had forgotten about the school wide absence calls that went out if your child was missing one or more classes that day.
I fessed up. It was the only day in my WHOLE entire life that I had been grounded. My parents never did ground us. They just didn't believe in it or something. I don't know why exactly but I could have cared less about the grounding issue. The worst punishment BY FAR was knowing that I had let my mom down. I had never felt so bad. I knew that she expected more out of me and I had let her down. And from then on I never wanted to disappoint her again. It was not the only time that I knew my mom loved me and wanted the best for me. She had always made that a well known fact in my life, and still does to this day.
Another time back in my college days, I had started dating this guy that was definitely not marriage material. I don't know how she did it but she never told me what to do or that I should have dated someone more appropriate. She just listened to me and somehow guided me to make the right decision to loose the guy. I guess she knew that it had to be my decision, not hers.
Or how about her clever tactics to get us to give her a back massage? Oh how sly she was! There she was sitting at the computer and I just loved to play with her hair. Before you knew it, the rest of the kids had somehow all gathered around her and she would say "Ah, my shoulders hurt." So I would start to rub her shoulders and before you know it she was going off about how I gave the greatest back rubs in the the world! That no one could give them as good as I. Well that's when my sister would step in and try to out do me. And well, I couldn't be defeated so I wanted another turn and then she would want to do better than me and before long my mom had a full out hour and 1/2 back massage. Clever mom.
So hopefully I did learn a thing or two while I lived at home. I sure hope I can raise Gabby and the rest of the little lambs like she raised me. Love you Mom!
mom and me on the first day of pre-school
mom and me at Disneyland
Grammy and Gabby Girl
And who can forget this moment???
I love being a mom