thoughts on mama hood.

a dear friend came over recently for a play date with the kids. while nolan slept all morning, cozied up in our bed, ava and little presley played princess dominoes and trouble. while entertaining her 11 1/2 month old son madden, carly and i talked about things of all sorts. one thing in particular, motherhood. 

i've been seeing a lot of posts from other bloggers recently on this subject, all of which my eyes tend to be glued to and i have to click the link to read. it's always nice to see when you're struggling with one thing or another and how you can relate with other women. 

... liiike for example, how you wonder where your four year old daughter learned suddenly how to roll your eyes at you. then you think, well... jenna, have you done that to her before?

... then, BAM, another mother blogs about having the same issue.

anyway, back to carly and i. we were talking about when her son was an infant and how different he was growing out of the baby stage then when presley was little. it's true. boys and girls are COMPLETELY different. we both were first to admit that after the second one, the baby stage isn't really the one we enjoy the most. we like the 'i can talk to you and tell you how i feel' stage. rather than the, 'i'll just scream until you figure out exactly what makes me comfortable' stage. 

that's when she mentioned something that struck my heart. it stayed with me all that day, and even until now. so much, i blogged about it, he he. mostly, because i don't ever want to forget it. 

she said, "i'm going to miss the hard times with the kids. like the 3am wake up calls, and the days when they fully rely on you while they're little. while you're in the moment all you are trying to do is get through it, but once it's over you long for it."

for every mother, how true is that statement? we ALL know that time truly does fly by. our days feel as though they are shorter and shorter and the birth of our babies feels like it happened yesterday. they learn from you, they grow from you, and most of all the learn love from you. i reflected on our conversation and time together as both a mother and friend. although i realize that the time with my kids is short, some days are hard. true story, and all you want to do IS get through it. truth is, you always do, and you always learn from the hard times. you can feed a child, give a roof over their head and teach them ABC's, but if you never teach a child love, it will know nothing. cuddle them, smile at them, praise them, kiss them, hug them, tell them you love them. 

there will be a day where i won't be here, and where i'll just be a memory to my kids. i want that memory to be nothing but happiness. i want them to know that their mama tried her very best, even with imperfections. 

... my brief thoughts on mama hood.