Birthday Post - After the Fact

I will admit upfront that I have no specific topic for this blog other than some random, disorganized thoughts that I will somehow attempt to cohese into a post. Several topics have come into my mind and left again just as quickly.

Jude Birthday Eve (a holiday, though not quite a nationally recognized one) found me wandering around in our local grocery store. On a weeknight. After the kids were in bed. As always I am amazed at the number of people out on a work night past 9:00. And yes, I realize that makes me the oldest thirty-something ever.

Jude's birthday was quite an event. We had celebrated with family and friends the previous weekend so on his birthday, we decided to show Jude his birth video, which gave me a chance to runimate and get upset anew about things over which I have no control. Jude's birth was a planned event. Show up at the hospital at 6:00 a.m. and by 12:06, voila, a beautiful (if slightly purple) child is born.

Jude had two questions about his birth video. 1. Why is there an arrow on me? The "arrow" was the clamp tying off his umbilical cord. 2. How old were Grandma and Grandpa when I was born? I cannot fathom why he wanted to know this, but the answer to that is 53 and 53 respectively.

I cried a bit realizing that Sully has no such birth video. His birth was a planned event, yet he decided to come early, thus foiling the surgery already planned for him two weeks later. There was no chorus of grandparents meeting us at the hospital; instead Jeff called them when it appeared that we were indeed going to have a baby that night. When grandparents did make it to the hospital, they were, rightly, concerned about where Jude was going to be spending the night. Having one child, as I said, is nothing like having two children.

But the point of the blog isn't disparity. It isn't compare/contrast. It isn't even about Jude. That's right. Birthday or no birthday, this blog is all about Mom(s).

Specifically, me.

Motherhood lets certain parts of one's personality really shine. For example, I've always had a creative mind so I am able to creatively problem-solve whenever the children require it. I may not always be one step ahead, but at least I'm not falling too far behind.

Other parts of you do tend to fade. The me that went out and stayed out late is now home and pajama-bound. So now being out at 9:00 on a weeknight feels exotic.

But the me who looks into my child's ridiculously huge eyes as he pleads me "Mom, please go on the slip and slide with me", that me nods and then runs and jumps onto a wet, slippery plastic device wearing her favorite summer dress. That me really gets a chance to shine.