Mother's Day...

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! If you are a mother I am sure it was extra special.

I am not a big believer in needing a "special day" to celebrate mothers, fathers, Christ, people in general. To paraphrase the book I love so much (The Happiness Project)...it matters more what you do every day than what you do once in a while. I am Dotty's mom everyday. I love her and she loves me every day. Mother's Day does not make her love me more (especially at 2...she has no clue about Mother's Day). I love her more and more every day (and that still amazes me).

However, I do appreciate all the efforts that people put forth on Mother's Day and days like it. I know I found gifts for my own mom starting in March and just had to hold onto them until a "holiday" came around. I also got amazing gifts for Mother's Day and I love all of them. My mom got me a Flip camera...so now I can record Dotty's life with sound and movement (and boy does that girl have some great moves and sound bites).

Dotty also made me an amazing Mother's Day gift (with help from her Daddy and Nana). She had it wrapped in beautiful paper that she showed me with great flare and pride on Sunday morning. She also helped me open it by ripping off the wrapping paper for me. Inside was a framed poem that said...

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls
But every day I'm growing
I'll be grown up someday
And all those tiny handprints
Will surely fade away
So here's a final handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small

Below the poem Dotty's hands were on the page in red paint with the her name and date below that. I had to work really hard not to start crying in front of Dotty. It was such a sweet gift that I will treasure forever.

Gifts like that remind me of another saying from The Happiness Project...the days are long but the years are short. Too often I am reminded that Dotty is growing up so fast and my once baby has become a sweet little girl who will soon be a big girl, a young lady, and then a grown woman. Through it all though I get to see the journey of her life from a unique position...that of her mother...and what a great view that is!