Bipolar Disorder

Ahhh…silence regins. God bless quiet time. You know I love my kids more than life, but good gracious there are so many times when they go to bed and I am just like, “Thank the Lord. You kids are wearing me out!” Will it always be this way? (Mothers of teenagers shake vehemently YES. Mothers of impetuous twenty year olds shake YES. My mother, somewhere, is shaking her head YES.)

Another Mother’s Day in the record books. Josh was going to record a video of Hudson telling me “Happy Mother’s Day” Sunday morning, but I was in the shower and he was sure I would be furious/destroy the camera if he did. Of course, I reflected that day on what I have learned in my few short years of motherhood. These things came to mind:

I have learned that you should really cut your hair before your child is 6 months old. In my case, it is falling out already, so God is taking care of that one for me.

I know that before you go tend to a crying baby in the middle of the night, go ahead and go pee first. If you do not, you will spend most of the time rocking your child back to sleep wishing that you had.

I realized on Sunday that I have not been bored since 2008. Probably one of the things I like least about Facebook is that I have so many former students who have friended me (I like that part) and they constantly post about their leisurely lives and sometimes say, “I am so bored today.” This makes me want to punch them in the face because I am so jealous.

Motherhood means that there are no secrets. Hudson tells everybody everything. Naturally, he always has good intentions. Take our conversation last Friday; I had just moved the Mother’s Day gift Josh had wrapped into the office and Hudson said,

“Daddy got you that at Menards.”

“I figured, Hudson. Don’t tell me what it is.”

Hudson replied, “I won’t, Mama. But I will tell you that when you put it over the campfire… it will make us POPCORN!!!!!”

He was so stinking proud of himself. Even later told Josh, “I didn’t tell her the present, Dada. I just told her what it made!”

Parenthood pretty much means that you have a different definition of tired than anyone else. Really the word exhausted isn’t strong enough and sometimes makes you wish you were just tired. And societal norms aside, you are much more comfortable with bodily fluids than you ever dreamed.

(Crying from down the hallway. Blech.)

Still shockingly, the thing about motherhood that continues to baffle me is how I can love someone soooooo much and so desperately want to escape them for an hour (or two) everyday. Little stinkers! Best thing ever! I am surprised more of us mothers are not bipolar…

Mother's Day 2012