Beautiful Day

It's true that I spend most of my time cracking jokes and making fun of the craziness of motherhood, and with good reason.  It's because with every positive pregnancy test, a few more brain cells pack their bags and invite sanity along for an extended getaway...we're talking one-way ticket vacation.   Talking about the crazy, funny, obnoxious things about parenting actually keeps me teetering on the brink of sanity.  And, being a parent means making sacrifices. It means at least temporarily forfeiting the more glamorous parts of life. It also means being so irritated, depressed, and trapped sometimes that you wonder what it was that ever made you think you could do something like this.

But, what I realized today is that in the grand scheme of things, these moments are fleeting.  Today was full of all of the great reasons to be a parent.  I'm not exactly sure why today was special.  Perhaps it had something to do with the appearance of that big "happy lamp" in the sky.  Sunshine can fix many things. Or maybe it's because I had a little cocktail with dinner.  Alcohol also has magical powers.  Either way, I know that today would have been very different if I weren't a mother.

I wouldn't have known what it felt like to have a three-year old climb in bed with me early in the morning.  I wouldn't have seen her trace the outline of my hair with her chubby little finger, and stare at me as if she were trying to memorize every line of my face.  I wouldn't have seen how many worms could be dug up in our backyard, or how many side-walk chalk daisies would fit on our driveway.  I wouldn't have been able to see a 5-year old put so much trust in her father that she felt she could cast away both her fears and her training wheels and take her first solo bike ride. 

Apparently, you don't "give up" the glamorous parts of life when you became a parent.  You don't experience the "good" parts of life DESPITE your parental responsibilities.  Instead you get to redefine "beautiful" because you are called Mommy.