Wonderful Blunderful Me: Happy Mothers' Day (to you and to me)

To the moms:

Thank you for still being moms, even on Christmas, Mother's Day, your own birthdays. Thank you for thinking of me in the cereal aisle/underwear section/Redbox. Thank you for adding dessert.

Thank you for teaching me the ways of being a woman. Thank you for shutting my closet doors and killing all the monsters. Thank you for trying to make the grown-up monsters go away for me. Thank you for fighting my battles alongside me.

Thanks for giving me half your face. Thanks for stifling your laughs at my wardrobe during the dreaded teenaged years. Thanks for making my non-painted toenails your personal concern.

Thanks for letting me be a wild teenager. Thanks for letting me flex my imaginary power and feel rebellious. Thanks for still letting me joke with you and snuggle and for laundering my badass tighty-whiteys. Thanks for always picking up my dishes.

Thanks for also being fantastic sisters, best friends, daughters, wives, aunts, cousins, and most importantly, grandmas. Thanks for spoiling my kid when I can't because if I show the slightest bit of weakness, I'll be had.

Thanks for sharing stories. Thanks for making up lullabies. Thanks for innovating Halloween costumes. Thanks for snapping pictures. Thanks for remembering.

Thanks for being part of the gigantic interconnecting web of people that is my life. Thanks for being at the hub, at my insistence but at your effort. Thamks for showing me how it's done. Thanks for being my mommy.

Dearest Finley,

My first Mother's Day was as heavenly and sweet as the day you were born, except with less grunting and pain and more smiles. Thank you for choosing me to be your mother. You're six months old. You're full of tricks now.

You sit up. You roll over. You eat Cheerios and avocado. You fake cough to get my attention. You blow raspberries. You throw everything off your high chair tray and scream.

But you are absolutely not shy about being a mommy's girl. Every night I curl around your tiny body, you put your hand in my hand, and our dreams overlap. And I am so lucky. You are so lovely...