Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mom (when you read this sometime in the next week or two, when you can't sleep so you catch up on my blog, "Hi Mom!")

Growing up, my Mom and I, um, butted heads. To put it lightly. My Dad would tell me it was because I was so much like her. Then I would be really mad at my Dad for awhile.

And you know, it turns out, I really am a heck of a lot like her. And I like it.

I see her in myself more and more all the time. Similar personalities, and we have a lot of the same good and bad habits. Our reactions, pet peeves, values and morals pretty much fall in line perfectly. We're kinda peas in a pod, but don't say that out loud, even at 30 I am still just learning to come to terms with this. :-)

My Mom is an amazing Mom, funny, generous, giving. She's beloved by neighbors and friends and admired by those who meet her. She has a gift with children. A straight up gift. They love her. She is particularly gifted when it comes to her work with mentally and physically challenged kids, which comes from a lifetime of caring for and loving her baby brother, my Uncle Karl, who was born with cerebral palsy.

As always promised by everyone, as I've become a Mother myself, we've grown even closer. When you have a first baby who is screaming nonstop, and people are asking you why you just don't feed her, why you can't get her to sleep, why you don't take her to the doctor for this (when you've gone three times to no avail that month alone), why you can't figure out what is wrong, nothing in this world means more than someone who understands and can sympathize. Without any judgment, just admiration that you're doing a very hard thing, and you're doing it really well. Who has been there and it understands. Even better if they're your own Mom, and her horrifically colicky baby was you, and she can tell you all about your own insane nap schedule and months of colicky screaming and somehow make it all sound livable. And survivable.

It's been amazing to me just how much her views and attitudes towards motherhood have shaped my own. My Mom is just pretty chill about motherhood. Not that it can't be hard. Even one of the toughest things you ever do. But no need to stress about it, get all worked up, or live in past 'failures'. Just do your best and remember that as part of your inherent womanhood, you were literally made to be able to do this. Not just give birth, but to parent, nurture, love and raise children.

And she's the most amazing Grandma. My kids adore her. It seems like anytime any one comments, "Wow, I can't believe she already knows that, she's so young," about Annie, I inevitably have to answer, "Oh, her Grandma taught her that."