The final straw came when I’d barely put her down when she was screaming again. Her diaper needed changing (yet again). A new mom, exhausted and angry, I was at my lowest ebb.
I got her cleaned up and literally threw her back into her crib. If there’d been an open window, I’d have been sorely tempted to toss her out of it. It was at that moment she chose to give me her very first 100 watt smile. Darwin would have been proud.
My favorite memory of her younger sister comes from her toilet training. She loved to sit on the potty chair, “reading” a book. Sitting. Turning pages. Sitting. Announcing, “All done.” Standing. Wiping her belly button. And peeing on the floor. It still cracks me up.
Are there memories you cherish from the kids in your life this Mother’s Day?
RHYS BOWEN: Clare and Annie playing at nuns, aged 2 and 3. Both with towels around their heads (Clare went to Catholic pre-school) Annie, ever the cheeky one, in my white seventies high boots. Clare turned to her frowning. “Don’t clomp, Annie. God does not like noisy nuns!”
Another fond memory, and one that embarrasses Dominic. We had Beverly Cleary to stay at our house in Texas when she came for a writer’s conference I was involved in. The next afternoon a ring at our front door. I opened it. Dominic, aged 2 or 3, is standing there, my purse over his arm. “Good afternoon,’ he said. “I am Beverly Cleary.” Still makes me smile.
My kids were always playing creative and inventive games, putting on plays and carnivals, never bored. And have grown up to be wonderful, creative adults.
JENN McKINLAY: The Hooligans gave me a lot to laugh about so I’ll pick their best literary moments as it is a writer’s blog :)
Beckett was ten and prone to leaving his breakfast dishes on the dining table. I said, “Put your dishes in the sink. We don’t have house elves.” He gasped, stared at me wide-eyed and said, “You gave them clothes?” Kid didn’t miss a beat with the Harry Potter reference. LOL.
Wyatt was seven and I announced that we were reading The Hobbit at bedtime. He asked what it was about and I said, “A fifty-year-old Hobbit named Bilbo Baggins.” He made a face like he smelled something bad and said, “I don’t want to read about a fifty-year-old Hobbit. He’ll probably just throw his back out.” LOL.
HANK PHILLIPI RYAN: As you know I was just at my grandson Joshua‘s Bar Mitzvah. He is constantly adorable, has been from day one, but at age 6, at the Passover table, he asked if we wanted to hear a song. Of course we wanted to hear a song! And he burst into a perfectly rendered version of Uptown Funk. I mean the whole thing. Word for word.
But his most classic came when he was a bit younger. His father tells the story of when he and little Joshua were sitting in the park, watching Joshua‘s idolized soccer players walk by and Paul would say “ Soccer team!“ and Joshua would gleefully answer. “Yes!”
Then his mother and older brother Elijah started walking toward them, and Paul said “Soccer team!”
And Joshua apparently looked at him, all perplexed, and said: “Dat’s Mummy and Yiyjuh. They not soccer. They Us!”
LUCY BURDETTE: Being a parent and helping kids grow up to be decent human beings is hard! I'm going with 'a picture is worth a thousand words' and showing you some funny moments from our grandchildren...
Here Thea didn't quite have the knack of how useful hands could be, but she figured something out...
And this one is Henry multitasking with toys while showing Grampy some basketball moves...
And finally, here's the new baby, Cal, who spends lots of time absorbing the action around him. (Doesn't this remind you of Hallie's cover for YOU'LL NEVER KNOW DEAR?)
Happy Mother's Day everyone--because everyone does their share of mothering someone!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I’ve got one for the “child of a writer” folder. I got my first contract before Youngest was a year old, so she grew up with a working author as her mother. When she was around three or four, my mom gave her a toddler-sized “rollerboard” so she could have her very own suitcase for trips to Grammy’s house.
Soon, Youngest was the only child in our part of Maine playing “Book Tour.” She would arrive at my office door with a baby doll in one hand and the rollerboard in another. She’d give the baby to me, with instructions to take good care of her. Then she’d wave and head out of the office. “Goodbye! I’m going on book tour!” She would return from the tour a few minutes later - sometimes with a book as a gift - and ask me detailed questions on how the baby had done in her absence. When I asked, she always assured me the tour had gone very well.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: I am loving all these stories. They make me wonder what hints our kids gave us about what they'd be like as adults. My daughter is so professional, so organized and successful at her work–where did she get that, I wonder?? But my parents had their own business and worked from home, and Kayti's favorite thing to do from toddler onward was to "play office." She'd pull everything out of the supply closet and entertain herself for hours with legal pads, pencils, paper clips, etc. Now my six-year-old granddaughter is watching British detective shows. Hmm.
Happy Mother's Day, everyone!
