I love being the mama

I love being the Mama. I love being the all-time loser at Candyland so my three year old can yell "I'm the champion!!" one more time. I love being the only one who can decipher my 20 month old's whinings and pointings that mean he wants cranberry grape juice in his purple cup. I love being the tickle monster. I love never having to miss their first intelligible words, their first jokes, their first words read outloud. I love making green play-doh snowmen and having my kids laugh out loud at the funny expression on the snowman. I love having my baby fall asleep on my chest with her fingers wound through my hair. I love seeing my ears, my eyes, my dimples on a tiny beautiful person and appreciating them for the first time because of it. I love being the one that the baby smiles at the quickest. I love being the one they run to when they're hurt. I love blowing bubbles at bathtime. I love explaining where the moon is hiding, why we can't have lunch after we're sleeping, and why the cat can't say more than "Mouw." I love playing peekaboo, horsey, and airplane. I love hearing enthusiastic thankyou's when I give them toast for breakfast, PB and J for lunch, and pancakes for supper. I love teaching them to pray, teaching them to love, teaching them to live. I love hearing my three year old thank God for keeping Daddy safe, every time he prays. I love hearing "I did it!" I love seeing them love their reflections in the mirror. (In the store the other day, after going through an aisle of mirrors, hearing George say to himself "Wow, there was a lot of cute Georges in those mirrors:)
I love getting presents of rubber duckys wrapped in blankets and having them yell "Surprise!!" when I open it up for the third time in 15 minutes. I love making lego houses and pillow forts. I love pushing on the swings, and catching them as they come down the slide. I love late night nursings with pink fuzzy babies who just want to look up at you and smile and let the milk dribble down their cheek. I love picking dandelion bouquets. I love having rocks pointed out to me in wonder. I love baby shrieking giggles and toddler belly laughs. I love impressing my children by knowing all the words to the Veggie Tales songs. I love doing pinky-p on their toes 12 times after they get out of the bathtub. I love being the only one who knows where to give kisses and how to give the right kind of bear hug. I love taking pictures of toothy grins with spaghetti sauce all over their faces. I love reading "Curious George and the Hot Air Balloon" 187 times until I know the words without looking. Some days, I forget. Some days, I let myself focus on the negatives and the hard parts, but I can never get beyond the wonder that God allowed this blessing into my life, that He gave me these precious little lives to care for. Thankyou Lord.