Mother's Day

First of all I want to wish all the Mums out there a huge Happy Mother's Day.  Being a Mum is a 24/7 365 days a week kind of a job, and one of the most frustrating and rewarding things I have ever done.  People don't tell you about all the hard bits before you have kids, and there are many of them, but they do tell you about the good bits.  When I had Mr A and realised just how hard this new job was, and went through all the usual 'new Mum' insecurities, I wondered why noone told me about those bits.  But now looking back I know exactly why.  Most of the people I knew had children, and by that I mean not babies.  Their wee ones were already school age or older, and already I am learning how quickly you forget all the trying times and only remember the good bits about being a Mum.

And so to the weekend really.  Last year I had the most awesome Mother's day which I wrote about here.  This year I think may have topped even that.
Yesterday Mr A came to me asking for a big box so I knew he was planning something.  Next he asked for the box of felts/crayons and gathered up all his stickers, took Miss M with him into the conservatory and told me quite firmly to stay out.  I'll admit now that I did have an inkling as to what he was up to but it didn't make the sentiment any less sweet.  So after much time and concentration I was told not to look and said box was 'hidden' in Mr A's bedroom.
Roll forward to this morning.  I got given two lovely cards that Mr A had made (one at school and one at OSCAR), and a card and chocolates Miss M had made at daycare.  I also got some chocolate, a lovely mug with 'pekos' on it (that's pukekos for those who don't know Meg shorthand for these things) and a new wooden spoon.  As well as a nice fresh cup of coffee and lovely cooked breakfast in bed, including toast that Mr A had made all by himself.
Then I got given this box.

This is a box that Mr A got sent for his birthday with a helium balloon in it.  He had written a new message in the tag for me and told me to open it.  Inside there was nothing.  Or was there?  I was told very seriously that Mr A and Miss M had filled the box right up to the very top with kisses just for me *awwww*.
I know that Mr A got this idea from this lovely wee book by Vivian French.  We first discovered this book in our local library and every time it was there Mr A wold get it out.  It's a lovely simple wee story about a cat who doesn't know what to get his Mum for her birthday, and finally decides on a box of kisses (you may have guessed that already).  I'm not sure what it is about it that Mr A loved so much but when we saw the very same book on the 'for sale' shelf of the library we nabbed it and it is still a firm favourite here, with Miss M now loving it.

So I guess my point is that the idea wasn't original to Mr A but we haven't actually read this book for a good few months and noone mentioned it to him.  I think he was just in the same situation as Stanley (the cat in the book) and wanted to get his Mum something special, all by himself.

For all that my children can be completely infuriating and drive me mad, deep down I am really very lucky to have two caring, loving and on the whole delightful children.  I think everyone has those moments when they could quite happily give away one or more of their kids, but it is times like this morning that make it all worth while.  And lets face it when looking back it's not the tantrums and defiance, but moments like this that form the lasting memories.