Mother's Day

What a difference a year makes.

Last Mother's Day I was standing in the local pharmacy, my 16 month old at my feet, my four year old sniffing around the glucose jellybeans.  I was hovering in front of the pregnancy tests.

I was embarrassed.  I had ordered 25 cheap pregnancy tests online but I couldn't wait the extra day or two for them to arrive.  I needed to know.  Immediately.

I thought I was pregnant.  I wanted to be pregnant.

The look on the chemist's face clearly told me that he thought I would be mad to be pregnant again. By this stage, my two children had started fighting over a balloon display and had knocked over a lifesized cardboard cut-out of an old man advertising laxatives.  Maybe he had a point.

I bought a bunch of expensive gifts for myself, hoping to 'hide' the pregnancy test amongst them.  Trying to pretend that it wasn't the most important part of the expedition. I paid my money and took my children home.

At home I excused myself from my own Mother's Day and went upstairs to pee on a $16 stick.

I had already convinced myself I was pregnant.  I thought Mother's Day would be a nice day to find out I was pregnant.

Turned out to be an ironic day to find out that I wasn't going to be a mother for the third time.

The disappointment I felt merely cemented my feelings that I wanted another baby.

One year later...

This Mother's Day was my first as a mother of three.  Things are a bit crazy in a house of five, and my husband proved he clearly had no idea when Mother's Day actually was when he took me out for breakfast the weekend prior. 

I only informed him of the correct date after he had paid the bill.

He offered to take me out again the following week, but instead I asked for him and the kids to make me breakfast.  I waited in bed until the Bombshell came to get me.  Flowers on the table. And a few aphids.  A specially designed placemat.  Bacon, liberally coated in maple syrup (thanks Nigella).  Pancakes, eggs. Bliss.

The kids didn't get around to making a card, and my present is a bit of a DIY affair, but I have had the pleasure of having the Bombshell sing Mother's Day songs to me for the past couple of week, courtesy of her pre-primary teacher.

"Five little mummies I know best
Fat ones, thin ones, tall ones too.
But the one in the middle, who belongs to me,
I love her and she loves me."


I hope you had a great Mother's Day.