Mommy to Mommy....

(We have a guest blogger today! Welcome our amazing cousin and best friend, Amy Salinas! ENJOY!)

Mommy to Mommy

On Thursday night, my favorite family got together for our traditional, annual girls' night Christmas party.  True to form, there was a theme, and on this particular night, all the girls channeled their inner Robert Palmer girl, complete with shiny apple red lips and black dresses, looking ready for the runway and not like the moms they usually are, running after the many toddlers and babies that each of them has had in the past two years.  As I listened to their stories of organized chaos, overwhelming stress and the general hilarity that comes with learning on the fly, I began thinking of the days with my own “babies”, now 11 and 10, and felt almost homesick.  Although I love the stage of my relationship with my kids, some calling it the calm before the teenage storms, I also remember the frustrations and the fears I had when they were little.  There was constant worry because I was solely responsible for their safety and the one they would need for protection.  As fun as it could be, the constant anxiety was exhausting.  As President Obama said in the aftermath of Newtown, as a parent, your heart is constantly outside your body when you have a child.

(my babies)

The one message I wanted to send to my beloved new mommies from last Thursday night is that it is all so worth it!  My kids are growing and changing almost every week it seems.  They are sarcastic and witty and have opinions that I am not necessarily responsible for planting in their precocious little brains.  They teach me things about myself because they are incredibly raw and honest with me.  But I think the honeymoon has occurred with us because of the time that was invested with them in the beginning, as well as the time I took for myself.  I loved reading to them when they were babies, cooking their favorite foods and singing their favorite songs over and over and over.  The memories in the end are well worth every downed bottle of wine and tears of frustration.   Girls’ nights are much needed recuperation for us to regroup and use our stories of chaos to make fun of ourselves and stay relatively sane.  So to my amazing cousins and fiercely brave mothers, whenever you are on the floor with your kids reading Brown Bear Brown Bear (without looking at the words because you know them by heart) or trying to figure out how to get them both out of their space-shuttle-grade car seats safely while carrying that damn diaper bag you just knew would be sooo convenient, give yourself a big pat on the back and a martini. And save your best stories for the next Girls' Night!