Dumbo's Mom

For some reason the other day I saw something that made my mind jump to Dumbo. I don't remember what it was. Anyway, that's not the point. This Dumbo reference triggered a Dumbo memory of mom crying when he was separated from the mom elephant. I remember always being so weirded out that she was crying during a cartoon & Dumbo turned out fine, so why the tears? I am going to be honest, I don't actually remember the whole plot of Dumbo, but I know he went on to meet the mouse & the crows and I seem to recall that it worked out ok for him. So, when I thought about this, my first thought was the weird path and then it hit me. She was crying for the mom. Oh. Sounds so cheesy, but all of you moms out there know exactly what I am talking about. Now that Anderson is about to turn 1, I find myself thinking about this motherhood thing. I remember the pregnant me thinking, even knowing, that I was going to love him. Then he was born and I realized that "love" really is just a name we kind of made up because clearly there are no words to describe the overwhelming, encompassing, complete, instantaneous, unconditional feelings that we have for our babies. The day he was born is really a blur of pain, fear, excitement....but there are about 5 seconds that I will never forget because I literally became a different person. Oh, to be sure the last year has not been easy. The first 2 months were the most challenging time of my life. The last 10 months haven't been a piece of cake either. The EXHAUSTION, the muscle aches from chasing a constantly moving baby, the worry, the tears (mine), the planning, the expense, the total lack of memory, on and on. But, wow. The amazingness of him outweighs anything. Another random memory-Cracker Barrel or somewhere like that had a cheesy pillow that said, "To have a child is to have your heart walk around outside your body." I think it was much more poetic on the pillow because that kind of sounds awful. This has randomly stuck with me, too. I think it is because I thought it was so odd. Who would want a pillow with some super cheese saying on it? Clearly it was some kind of generic mother's day gift. But, now I know that it is so true. My bug is my heart. I marvel at him every day. And then I have to move extra fast to get him because those few seconds gave him a pretty good head start.

So, that is the end of my cheesy Hallmark post. I just wanted to be able to remember how I feel the day that the best thing that ever happened to me turns one.