The mother of a four-year-old tells what it means to her to be a mother:

 

1.  Truly experiencing joy

2.  Being woken up at four in the morning to a little body climbing into our bed and snuggling his way next to me

3.  Becoming an expert at building boats, fighter jets, and trains out of Lego

4.  Skipping down the sidewalk and jumping over cracks to encourage the pace of our journey home

5.  Falling in love with someone who cried and pee’d on me the first time I met him

6.  Feeling my heart break at my little one’s pain and suffering

7.  Rarely leaving the flat without forgetting something

8.  Having a little buddy with whom to share life’s amazing moments

9.  Taking 20 minutes to walk one block in order to follow the journey of an ant

10.  Multitasking every minute of every day and not accomplishing much at all

11.  Being considered a source of endless entertainment

12.  Comforting my sick one while his vomit slowly rolls down my neck and back and fighting the urge to put him down and clean myself off immediately

13.  Being a teacher for life…and someday, when he’s grown up and learned what he needs to learn from a parent, becoming a friend as well

14.  Having an excuse to watch Disney DVDs

15.  Laughing and giggling every day about nothing in particular

16.  Using my imagination to create things I never knew I could create, such as a sword out of aluminum foil, wrapping paper and toilet paper rolls

17.  Building an elaborate fort out of our dining room table, couch cushions, and duvets…and then falling asleep together while reading books in it

18.  Letting things go

19.  Going out in the rain with umbrellas and wellies, in search of the best muddy puddles in which to jump and splash

20.  Constantly locking myself out

21.  Calling my bank to cancel my lost credit card, feeling a tug on my hand just as I hang up the phone, and seeing my son lift the carpet to show me where he put it

22.  Having inside jokes that no one else gets

23.  Crawling into a cardboard box that magically becomes a pirate ship

24.  Learning how to make balloon animals

25.  Carrying an overfilled backpack on the airplane with absolutely nothing in it for me, except for my passport

26.  Getting to read all my favorite children’s books again and again…and again

27.  Taking time to play in the daffodils

28.  Having a sous chef all the time, albeit a bit of a messy one

29.  Loving a little being with all my heart and soul…and being loved back