Happy Mother's Day!!

So this one goes out to all mothers, but in particular to the mother of little Max and the mothers of both of Max's parents. As our East Coast friend J said recently, "Did anyone ever tell you that this parenting stuff is hard??". I said, "No", trying to understand her perspective, but a) she recently had twins, so REALLY "hard" for me is probably "half hard" for her . . . and b) she's a mother and I'm a father.

Repeatedly over the last eight months, I've come to the realization that, on top of the umpteen other ways in which guys have it easy, moms have it a lot harder than dads. It's probably some male doctors who keep penning these studies that prove that breastfed children are far more likely to be more intelligent (and healthier, and stronger etc.) than their formula-fed counterparts...I mean, it's all well and good that this is the case, but it's good ol' mom who has to be there at the beck and call of junior, not dad who hopefully can step to the plate a lot more when formula is in play. You read this blog, so chances are you know Holly has been and is still breastfeeding. Holly has been a total pro and someday I hope Max, with his bigger brain and bigger body (laughing slightly at that one), will read this and thank his mom for giving him a good head start, despite breastfeeding being a pretty taxing way to go some days.

Which brings me to my next point. You watch TV or read books and the mother of the angst-ridden teen is always saying something like "I changed your dirty diapers for years, and this is how you treat me?". Personally, yeah, the diapers smell, but I'll take them over the lack of sleep. Again, you read this blog so you know this has been a bit of a theme for me, but that sleep thing is a doozy. And this is where it is dawning on me that my mom and Holly's mom went through the same things we are going through and deserve a BIG thanks. I mean, they always deserved a thanks for the things that we could remember, but Holly and I couldn't remember back to the very start so now it's like we need to acknowledge our moms (plural, not ghetto speak) for two sets of things: the things they have done for us over the past year and the things they likely did for us 30-something years ago. So I guess they can feel doubly proud. I'll even throw some special recognition out there for Max's sole great-grandmother, who is another layer deep in the recursive algorithm.

In any case, I'll leave you with what I hope are a couple of indelible images of what all of this mothering over the years has led to - a pretty sweet kid in Max: