Thursday, August 16, 2012

Mema Arrives

Monday morning my Mom was arriving. We all got up and Aaron and Grace got ready and headed out the door. I tidied my apartment, hoping to give the illusion that despite having a baby a week prior that I totally had it together. In between cleaning piles of random items and doing the dishes, I texted with my Mom "What gate are you at?" and "Have you reached the baggage claim?" Despite her flight arriving at 8:30am the baggage claim and the traffic from the airport pushed her arrival to the apartment further and further. Suddenly we had a conflict since Christian had a doctor's appointment at 9:40am and I needed to head out the door. I got Christian ready and headed out the door with Aaron calling and telling me that they would meet us there.
Instead of meeting Christian in the walls of our home, my Mom first met him in the waiting room at the Doctor's office.
Despite the surroundings the moment was no less special. There is something so remarkable about seeing your Mom love on your baby. And the first moments when she established that Grandma connection were amazing. i'm so glad I had my phone out to capture it.
And then my Mom went to work. Snuggling Christian.
Going on shopping trips with Grace and buying her chocolate donuts and caramel popcorn.
Taking pool trips
Reading books
And playing bubbles
My posse on their "compuners" as Grace would say. And Grace's computer is a doctor kit box.
She kept the house functioning, did laundry, made meals, cleaned, and grocery shopped so that Aaron and I could do lots of this:
And this:
Because it was so desperately needed.

We did our best to pamper her and make her feel loved
We even planned a pedicure date, which despite our best efforts she insisted on paying for.

Christian's belly button finally fell off and healed before my Mom went home so she was able to give him his first bath


And then her trip had to come to an end. She made an amazing brunch of waffles with pecans for us before Aaron took her to the airport. I cried hard when she left. I didn't have the right words to express my gratitude for the things she had done for us. She put her life on hold to take care of me and my family, picking up all of the responsibilities that I had to forego in order to care for baby Christian. So I hugged her tight and hoped that all the feelings of gratitude I had would translate in that hug, and I told her "I hope you know how grateful I am." And then I watched her walk away, watching her pause briefly on the stairs to say "You can do this. You'll be great."

3 comments:

Jana said...

This made me cry. Moms are the best.

Jessica and Trent said...

So I know you posted this last week, but I had to tell you - I just read all of the posts on this page and pretty much all of them made me cry..haha. What would we do without our moms?! Btw, I seriously love the way you write - you have me laughing one minute and crying the next!

Jessica and Trent said...

Whoops, I meant all of the posts since this one - not that it really matters :) So glad things are going so smoothly with 2 kiddos! I'm terrified even thinking about having #2..haha.