Little Hands, Big Hearts

It is well known that I love being a Mom. It is the best and most proud accomplishment of my life. A lot of the time, being a Mom is a thankless job, but then there are those little moments where you realize exactly why you go through all you do as a Mother.

For example, this weekend was my daughter Ava's 4th birthday party. I set her cake in front of her and kneeled down to her side at the table, lit her candles, and we all sang Happy Birthday to her as loud as we could. She blew out her candles and then got up, and threw her arms around me and gave me the biggest hug and kiss of her life. It melted my heart.

My son Aidan and I have always been very close. He's a very emotional young man. He cries when the space shuttle launches out of happiness. That's just the kind of kid he is. Now, he's almost 8 years old and it isn't "cool" to hug or kiss your Mom in front of your friends at school. Instead, each day as I'm walking him to extended day, he holds my hand and we squeeze each other's hand back and forth repeatedly until he gets to just outside the door. Then he kisses me on the cheek and runs inside to play with his friends and yells, "Bye, Mom!" to me as he's on his way in. I don't think he will ever know how much those little hand squeezes mean to me every day. It's like our own little secret hand hugs. I plan on doing that to him even as I'm walking with him at his college graduation.


My sweet baby Alivia's face lights up the instant she sees me looking down on her in her crib each morning. She smiles the biggest smile I have ever seen, and when I pick her up, she grabs my face with both hands and gives me huge, slobbery wet open-mouthed kisses all over my face. I love the way she just looks at me like I'm the best thing to ever happen to her. The love we share for each other is quite obvious when we look at one another. She's the best cuddle bug of them all. I live for her smile and I love those disgustingly wet, slobbery kisses.

It's the little stolen moments with them like this that mean so much. I miss them terribly while I'm at work every day and I can't wait until 5:00 when I get to pick them up and love on them again, even if they start driving me crazy five minutes later. That's their job. And it's mine to love them, and Oh, how I do.