The past few weeks have been exhausting. No time for much of anything with work, church, GCA rehearsals and dress rehearsals and performances, and then more work at night until the wee hours of the morning because that’s when the other Stone Soup employees choose to work. So, when a day rolled around that was going to allow me to spend actual time with my daughter, I’ve found myself covering my head with the covers when she would come into my room at 7:30 a.m. saying, “Good Morning, Mommy.” I also found myself saying things like, “Aren’t you old enough to fix your own milk?” and “Can you watch just one more episode of ‘Wow, Wow Wubbzy’ and then I’ll get out of bed?” But alas, after her telling me, “No, Mommy, GET UP” over a dozen times, I’ve dragged myself out of the bed feeling a slight sense of resentment and also an extreme amount of guilt. I got over the resentment after waking myself up with a hot shower. And I got over the guilt by allowing her to have a sucker and Smarties for breakfast. We also played and had fun, so that was nice, too.

Somehow, though, I think she still loves me. Despite my lack of time to be able to play most of the time because I’m always saying, “No, I can’t color with you right now. Mommy has to clean and do laundry,” she still prefers to be with me over others who are actually able to spend their entire visit devoting every bit of attention to her. Even today, at several different random times, she said to me, “Mommy, I love you sooooo much.” And perhaps one of the sweetest moments was when Aunt Susan handed her a $100 bill to give to me and she handed it to me saying, “Happy Mother’s Day” just as excited as if she had given me something that was actually from her. She even continued this “I love you, mommy” streak as I spent 2 hours trying to get her to take a nap and saying things like, “You are going to be grounded for the rest of your life if you don’t go to sleep RIGHT NOW!”

But tonight? All I really care about is the fact that I just sat next to my little girl who is asleep in my bed and I was able to stroke her hair and kiss her on the forehead. (I think Dan might actually allow her to sleep in there with us tonight…it IS Mother’s Day, after all.)

And tomorrow I get to wake up and spend the day kissing Brittain and being thankful that God allowed me this job as her mother. And also? I plan to kiss my own mother…and thank her for deciding to have me. Because life is fun. And despite the difficult, tiring, and stressful times, I know for a fact that there is nothing more rewarding than being a mother.

Thank you, Brittain, for allowing me to be your mommy. I know I’m not always the best, but I hope you’ll always realize that I’m trying. I love you more than words can tell.

Dan and I were both able to attend Brittain’s last day of preschool party. It didn’t hit me until we arrived there that morning that Brittain had finished her first year of preschool! I walked into the room, remembering walking in on the first day of school…and now the school year was over. The parents were presented with a scrapbook from the whole year and it was unbelievable to look through it and see everything she had done and participated in. I think even Dan got a little emotional while looking through it. The year had gone by so quickly!

All the kids were told to bring their bikes, but because it was raining outside, they had to ride them up and down the hall. Brittain enjoys riding her tricycle, but only when there’s absolutely nothing around that she can run into, or that can run into her. This situation was not that. It seemed like there were bikes everywhere…and they were FAST. There was even one of those electronic John Deere ride things…and that little boy would just plow through anything and everything that got in his way.

As you can tell from these pictures, this wasn’t Brittain’s favorite part. So, we went back to the room a little early and played on our own.

Last month I had the opportunity to travel to Macon and take some family pictures of James, Amanda and Kyla Rose. It made it even more fun that Dan and Brittain were able to come along. In between shots, when the girls started getting stir crazy, they would take a few minutes to just run around and laugh. At the end, we stayed a few extra minutes so they could do some more playing.

It’s so funny to me the relationship that Brittain and Kyla Rose have and the way they play together. Amanda and I have been best friends forever, but of course we didn’t know if our children would find that same special connection. And because of the distance between us, we can’t get together as often as we would like. Despite this, though, Brittain and Kyla have developed a different relationship than what I’ve seen with other children Brittain is around. They play so well together, and you can just tell when they’re together how much they enjoy each other’s company. I’m so thankful for my friendship with Amanda and now the friendship Brittain has with Kyla.

When we first arrived, Brittain immediately had to go to the bathroom, so Dan dropped me off and hit the closest fast food restaurant for a tee-tee break. I loved seeing the looks on both of the girls’ faces. It was a combination of excitement and shock. And the hug was just way too sweet.

In between things, and during wardrobe changes I caught some other shots:

At the point I took this picture, Brittain kept saying to me, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy” trying to get my attention. When I finally stopped what I was doing and acknowledged her she said, “Mommy, is this your camera bag?”:

Here are some of my favorite shots from the day:

Once Kyla Rose sat on the tree, Brittain wanted to do it as well. I think she liked it…but she kept one eye over her shoulder, and made sure her Daddy was holding on tight at all times.