Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to my dear wife. This is her fifth one. Hard to believe that over half of our marriage has been as parents. The majority of our boys' lives have been with us. It has been a truly joyful year. Our first several months of parenthood were pretty tough. We didn't realize it at the time because we were so busy, but looking back we wonder how we did it. (Maybe that's why people always told us that they wondered how we did it!) I would like to think that we are better parents today than we were in the beginning. More patient, more sensitive. We used to feel like babysitters. It took over a year for everything to feel really real and well settled. But this past year has been great. A good school year, just completed, a real diagnosis for Bobcat and time to get used to it and adjust our eating habits. Bubba's first communion coming up in just three weeks. I think we are finally learning to slow down, to not rush ourselves or the boys, to not demand perfection. To just take each day peacefully, and to enjoy this time in our lives. She's been a mom long enough to see how the children progress with time. Poor Bobcat, he was the guinea pig. We stressed over every spelling test. Was he on track? Was he reading well enough? Why was he being stubborn? In fact, he wasn't being stubborn - he was being a kid. One day, not long after his 7th birthday, he kicked into gear and took off academically. She sees Snookie doing everything his brothers used to do, and it bothered us the first time around, but now we know he is just a boy. He will be ready when he's ready. There's a balancing act there - pushing hard enough for them to be challenged, but also allowing some breathing room when they are feeling overwhelmed and anxious. My wife has gotten really good at that this year, and is able to respond to the children with gentleness and patience. She's just a better, more natural mom each year. She is truly the heart of our home, and my consolation when I need her. Here's to another good year, MommaLlama!