Mother's Day

One of the best things about Mother's Day has to be receiving homemade gifts and cards from my kids. Every year their teachers (God bless them) come up with cutest ideas for Mother's Day crafts and the kids are so proud to bring them home to give me.

Noah

Each of the boys proudly presented me this morning with a card they had made. They were all wonderful. Joshua's was short and to the point: "Happy Mother's Day. I love you." and it included a drawing of a very large roller coaster. Matthew's was sweet with butterflies and swirly things all over it in purple. But the one that really made me laugh was Noah's. Along with "We heart you!", the inside read "Thank you for having the patence to be our mother!" I later found out that his sentiment was in direct response to a frustrating conversation I had with him recently about misplaced homework. Realizing I was only about a second away from popping that afternoon, I paused the conversation, and breathing deeply said "Noah, I'm trying to be so patient with you and I have almost no patience left!" Apparently that stuck with him! I confirmed that it does indeed take a lot of patience to be their mother and we laughed about his card all afternoon.

Joshua

Among many other sweet gifts that Joshua brought home (like planted herbs and a really awesome flower pen) from school was the foam picture frame he made. He's got a fake smile plastered ear to ear and it's precious! He was so excited about Mother's Day, mostly because he loves any chance he gets to celebrate and to do something special. Knowing that, I assumed his motives for this weekend were primarily self-centered (which kind of comes with the diagnosis and we're used to it). Yesterday, I found out otherwise. Roger and I were having a discussion about the weekend and he had been asking me about what I wanted to do for Mother's Day. I told him I was so busy this week I hadn't even thought about it, and being in somewhat of an irritated mood, and facing what seemed like a hundred "to-do's", I flippantly said "I hate Mother's Day weekend anyway!" Not paying attention to the fact that Joshua was in the room, I heard a little voice say "But......I hope you like it". The room fell silent and my heart broke. We've been talking over him for all these years. Not only did he hear me, he understood me, and despite the self-centered nature of an autistic child, he said he wanted ME to like Mother's Day. That, in itself, is a tremendous gift. Tonight, he came to hug me before going to bed. I bent down in front of him and told him "I had a great time with you today. Thank you so much. I DID like my Mother's Day!" He smiled.

Matthew

Matt is wrapping up his Kindergarten year and still is at home with me for half of the day. He has really taken off lately with reading and is doing an excellent job in school. It made me smile to see his chunky Kindergarten printing and the words: "I love my mom because she makse my food." (In the picture, I also have wild sprouting hair, which I love!) Matt is such an easy-going child. We get along very well on our afternoons together, where he's content to keep himself busy but still prefers to be in the same room with me. We chat over lunch, read books, and spend a few relaxed hours getting various things done around the house. While I looking forward to summer, I realize that I only have a few more weeks to spend with him. First grade will come too soon and my little buddy won't be with me anymore. And I miss him already.

This was my 12th Mother's Day. I remember a time when we had three babies under the age of five. Life was chaotic and exhausting -- a blur. I wished the days would come and go as quickly as possible just so I could survive them. Now I look at my boys, growing like weeds month by month, and I see three men just over the horizon. These years have gone too fast.