my own mom gave me such a nice card on mother's day, expressing her wish that i enjoy experiencing the wonder of life through violet's eyes at every opportunity. what she's really saying (in her gentle way) is that i need to stop worrying so much, especially about all of the ways i'm failing to be the perfect mom. she's right of course, and i don't know why it's so hard for me personally to avoid rapid descent down the "i suck" spiral of self-doubt at every parenting fail, like, say, when i'm checking out at the grocery store and violet swan-dives out of the cart with me narrowly catching her only to realize that poop is smearing from her shorts onto my shirt as she smacks me in the face and laughs about it, inspiring me to make a wry comment about pain-in-the-ass kids to the cashier who is, hello, eight months pregnant. but the truth is that as time passes and violet continues to grow and thrive, i find myself worrying less and less (i would've predicted i'd worry more and more) because it seems pretty apparent that in spite of (or more likely because of) the day-to-day failures on our end, she's turning out pretty great. the most repeated line in my internal monologue? "shake it off, stacey." i like to picture our dogs coming in from the rain. shake it OFF.
appropriately, we spent mother's day stopping to smell the roses at the huntington library. nana, poppy and auntie courtney made the long trek from san diego to pasadena for the afternoon.
violet loved being on the loose in the green expanses. in fact, the only time she wasn't on the move was while heartily enjoying the brunch. here's mama and violet
in their more natural state
we tried to get a girls picture
but violet had a cookie or four to burn off
cookies really do make frequent appearances on this blog, don't they?
Such lovely ladies!
ReplyDeleteAnd I know exactly what you're talking about Stacey - I experience the same doubt, anxiety, and spiral. My mom has much the same advice for me, too, although I kind of think that she worries too much about how much I worry....
You two worry too much. Have the seen the people that they let be parents? ;-)
ReplyDeleteOh god, Lisa - I'm starting to worry that you think we worry too much.... (Clearly we all need to meet out here on the east coast for a drink.)
ReplyDeleteseriously, as if we don't worry about our worry levels enough, lisa! ;)
ReplyDelete