Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Friday, May 18, 2012

Our Day


Today Sebastian took our first trip to the African Lion Safari of the season.  Usually for our first trip of the season I like to go by ourselves so that we can do all of the touristy things together as we then usually go with friends throughout the summer and the kids spend a large amount of their time in the splash pad or playground.

So touristy stuff we did!  We took the bus through the Safari, we bought some souvenirs, had lunch at the cafe, had a pony ride, a boat ride, a train ride, an elephant ride and sat and watched the Birds of Prey show, in which one of the falcons almost landed on our heads (unbeknown to us at the time a perch was directly behind us!).

And one of the more comical moments of the day came after the Birds of Prey show when Sebastian asked one of the handlers what the falcon, which he was holding, was eating.  It was comical because along the country drive to the Safari we talked about the many types of different animals we'd see and Sebastian jokingly questioned if we'd see chickens, as he knows there aren't chickens at the Safari!  So weren't we surprised and did we ever have a good laugh when the man holding the falcon told Sebastian that the falcon was eating chicken!  Seb turned to me and said, "See mom!  I told you there were chickens here!"

How could I argue with that?!?!













Gems

Lately Sebastian has been very interested in gems.  Most days my pockets are filled with tiny shiny stones that he calls gems to take home with us.  We literally cannot go anywhere without him collecting some sort of "gem" to take home to add to his collection.

So a couple of weeks ago I decided that for fun we would make our own gem.
It's basically just rock candy (pure sugar) but it was neat to watch the "gems" grow during the past few weeks.

If I don't say so myself, I think our gem turned out pretty good!

How it all began....


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Mothering is Just What I Do

This past Sunday, Mother's Day, was a very special one for me.

The day started as most weekends do at our house.  Sebastian calls out to let us know that he is awake and then he crawls into our bed for "mommy cuddles, as he likes to call them.  After lazing around for a bit the boys presented me with a lovely heart pendent complete with 3 ruby's that Sebastian had chosen for my himself (I like to think that the ruby's represent us).  We then had breakfast and lazed around for a bit before meeting Nonee & Papa for a special Mother's Day brunch out in the country at a restaurant that used to be an old barn.  It was an idyllic setting for me, being with my family with the sights, sounds and smells of the country. 

Some people, after finding out I "shared" my Mother's Day brunch with my mother-in-law have asked me about how I felt about that, and with the tone given I could only conclude that they would be surprised that I would enjoy having to "share" my moment.  But what a lot of people don't understand is that if it wasn't for my mother-in-law I wouldn't have the beautiful family that I do have.  I wouldn't have the wonderful husband that I have and we would never have created such a beautiful soul for a son.  Why wouldn't I want to share my day with this woman who has given me so much?

Anyways, I digress....



During brunch Sebastian had complained a couple of times of not feeling well.  After eating he joined some of the other children outside to play with "Stewart", the farm dog.  The kids had a great time chasing Stewart and throwing sticks and it was great to watch them until Seb picked up a stick and Stewart, all 150lbs of him, decided to try to jump on Sebastian to get to the stick.  Luckily I was able to figure out what was about to happen prior to Stewart being able to land on Sebastian and I was able to get Seb out of the way.

A few minutes later though the children had moved on, Sebastian included, and Sebastian began to run towards us.  I can only guess that Stewart saw Sebastian as a moving play toy and he ran toward him and jumped on him from behind.  Poor Seb went down pretty quick and hit his head off the grass.  We immediately ran to him to provide him some comfort and luckily he wasn't too injured, however, he turned awfully pale.  We decided to go inside the gift shop, after he sat down and had a few sips of water, to settle him down.

Well at this point Sebastian was sitting on an antique sofa beside his dad and vomited.  All over.  The sofa and the rug was covered.  We quickly got him up and I directed, or perhaps knowing me at this point, ordered Jamie to get him into the bathroom which was just around the corner.  The in-laws had left the room saying sorry but they couldn't handle vomit.

So there I was on Mother's Day cleaning my son's vomit off of an antique couch and floor all by myself.  And believe me, when I say there was a lot of it, there was a lot of it.

Now a lot of people would hear this and think I had a horrible Mother's Day, because who would think that a mom should be cleaning up her child's vomit on the one day of the year dedicated to her.  But this is where the majority of people are wrong.

You see, as I was cleaning up after my son I began to chuckle to myself and thought how this situation epitomizes the very core of Mothering for me.  You see, mothering is what I do.  It's not a job.  I chose, along with my husband, to take on the role of being a mother close to 6 years ago and I've never looked back.

As I scrubbed that carpet I thought about how I cringe every time people talk about being a mom as the best job in the world.  To me a job is something you do to survive.  You do it so that you can get paid so that you can have a roof over your head, clothes on your back and food on your table.

Being a mom is not a noun for me, it's a verb.  It's what I am to my son.  So cleaning that rug on Mother's Day was what I did and I did it without batting an eyelash because my son needed me.  As a mom I will always be there for my son regardless of the day, the hour or the minute.  Puke or no puke.  I am a mom and I am so blessed with the beautiful son I have.

Mother's Day is a day of reflection.  It's not a day where I want to be lavished with gifts of appreciation for all that I do for my family.  For me it's a day to reflect upon the blessing that I have been bestowed.  After having, and still having, to suffer with secondary infertility for over 3 years I know that there are over a million women in this world who aren't celebrating Mother's Day, but it's not because they aren't deserving.  Not one second of the day passes where I don't reflect about how lucky I am.  So for me, Mother's Day is a day to reflect and I don't need a special day once a year for my son and husband to show me how much they appreciate me.  I know I am loved.  I know I am appreciated.  And mothering is just what I do.

(And just to add, Sebastian was ultimately okay.  Despite being worried he may have had a mild concussion he perked up about an hour later and the colour returned to his face, especially after we mentioned that we were going to post pone our trip to the comic book store!!)