The Po Show

Mother's Day Prep

Matthew surprised me this morning by complimenting me: "I like your dress." Of course he didn't take his eyes off the TV as he said this, but I still thought it was sweet. He really touched my heartstrings the other day. Tessa and I had stopped for Mother's Day cards for all the grandmas (my mom, Ross' mom, and Ross' two grandmothers) on the way home and Matthew made off with one. He was doing something at the diningroom table and kept telling me to go away when I walked by the room. After a bit, I realized that he was writing in the card and I said to Ross, "He does realize that card's for Grandma, doesn't he?" No, actually, he had thought it was for me (despite the fact that it said "Grandma" on the front by the kitty cat) and he had painstakingly written

"Happy
Mother's
Day
Mom
L"

Oh, we said, that's for Grandma. He instantly got upset. We told him over and over that it was wonderful, that Grandma would love that he wrote so nicely in the card, that we could change it to "Grandma," but he was inconsolable. It took awhile to calm him down, and he was fine, but I was so sad for him. Writing is still very difficult for him, and he had tried so hard to print neatly and had done it all on his own. He later did accept it when we erased "Mom" and "L" on the card, and he signed his name on all the cards. Tessa made beautiful little cards for all the grandmas with drawings on the front (all of Matthew :)) and "writing" on the inside (she carefully drew lines while intoning "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess... Once upon a time, there was a bunny..." etc.).

I provided Ross with all the pictures of the kids he needed to include in the cards to his mother and grandmothers and once again wondered why this was all my responsibility, him getting cards and pix out to his own family. Well, at least I don't have to buy my own card and present (he admitted to Matthew that there was no card for me yet, though there were two presents :)). At least I don't have to hear from him that I'm not his mother ;-).

I'm reminded, though, of the first Mother's Day after Matthew was born. Ross had been sick the week before and got a wee bit defensive when I commented on not having a card on Mother's Day to go with the picture frame he had bought me months before.

"I was sick," he protested.

"Yes," I answered, "and you know they only recently announced when Mother's Day was going to be."

The other thing Matthew said recently that blew me away was during an attempt to write something else to my sister, thanking her for some gifts, which was not coming out perfectly. I told him repeatedly that it was all right to try again, that it didn't have to be perfect.

"NO!," he cried. "I want it to be perfect!"

I told him that it was okay, that nothing in the world was perfect, that Auntie would love it even if it wasn't perfect. In what I thought was a stirring example, I said, "*I'm* not perfect, and you still love me."

Without missing a beat, he replied, "Yes, you are."

Wow. My heart jumped into my throat. "Oh, Matthew, I am *so* not perfect," I told him.

"Yes, you are," he repeated, with total conviction. I knew that he really meant it. It was startling to me, that this little person with whom I've made SO many mistakes, thinks I'm perfect. Me, the most flawed human being I know...

Okay, so there are good reasons for having children. Who else is ever going to think you're perfect??? Happy Mother's Day to me, and to all of us, perfect in the eyes of our children.