Mother's Day Weekend
My first Mother's Day was amazing in pretty much the way that motherhood is amazing on any other day. It was full of smiles and tears and lots of unexpected interruptions.
The weekend was super busy because Pierce's friend, Drew, got married on Saturday and Pierce was a groomsman. Friday night, Pierce got home late because of work so we showed up to the rehearsal dinner an hour after it started. Guys are so different from girls on this, though, because a few apologies later they were cracking jokes about it. I couldn't believe it. Anyway, we had a blast that night and Saturday at the wedding was no different. Lucy is such an easy-going baby so taking her to crowded places where there's lots of noise never seems to bother her. We chalk it up to the fact that we've never tried to be quiet while she's sleeping. We just go on about our business and the girl snoozes through it all. Just one of the many reasons we love our Lucy.
Yesterday, we woke up a little late for church, but it wasn't a big deal. Usually, I sit in the lobby and play with Lucy during the 9 a.m. service while Pierce is with his middle school boys in Transit. I try not to pay too much attention to the sermon on the monitors because we always take Lucy to Waumba Land (the baby/toddler ministry) while we attend the 11 o'clock service together (Lucy, however, loves to watch the screens). But I was super tired when Pierce got out of Transit and just before service started, we did that whole, "I could skip...wanna skip?" routine because, hey, it was Mother's Day and, apparently, Pierce had some things he wanted to do for me. Can't argue there.
Turns out, his plan was to get me a big ol' iced coffee and take me to Home Depot so I could get all the stuff I wanted to plant a little garden. He's a keeper, that one. I'm forever talking about random things I want to do - thanks to Instagram accounts I follow and, as usual, Pinterest - and he always remembers. We sat Lucy in the cart with the baby seat (so she could practice her driving skills 16 years in advance, natch) and subsequently took turns exclaiming about her overwhelming cuteness. I'm convinced that Mother's Day is actually a day for us to celebrate our babies.
After a delicious (oh, so delicious) lunch at Le Petit Marche in Kirkwood, we went home to relax and watch The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. We-he-heeelll...Lucy Jane was having none of that.
We've never had Lucy on a super tight schedule, except for feeding. I nurse or bottle-feed her every two-three hours still like clock work, and she has fallen into her own sleep routine. She naps twice during the day for anywhere from 1-2 hours and then goes to bed at 8:30-9:00. I used to do a dream feeding at 11 before I went to bed, but we've been able to start skipping those recently.
Anyway, needless to say, Lucy hadn't napped but just an hour total by the time we got home. And by this point she'd normally have been right smack in the middle of her second nap. She fussed and cried and as soon as we'd get her down and press play on the movie again, she'd wake up. The Hobbit is long, but it took us a total of five hours to watch it because our poor baby was so angry tired. You know what I mean? When your baby's cries sound more like growls? She was so pitiful we couldn't even get that frustrated. Our only consolation was that we had absolutely nothing else to do so, thankfully, there was no pressure to get her to cooperate. We kind of just let it ride out and tried to function during the times she would calm down. The girl finally went to bed at 10:30 p.m.
Right after she went down, I went into her nursery (she doesn't sleep in there yet) and cried. It was a good but very heavy day for me and I just needed to get some junk out of my system. Afterwards, I went straight to bed and passed out.
Mother's Day was a reminder to me that our work is never done as mamas. Our babies don't know what day it is and even when they do, their world is still all about them. It's my job to help sharpen Lucy's focus and shape her worldview so that she is, eventually, able to see other people and serve them the way she has been served. But that day is not here yet. And I'm happy to mother my Lucy girl until it arrives...and long, long after.
Thank you, Pierce, for always taking care to listen and remember the silly things I say. Thank you for your patience yesterday and your gentleness towards Lucy. And thank you for celebrating me. I love you.
And now, before I go, I leave you with a video of Lucy in the driver's seat: