Mother's Day- superhero/princess style

Wolverine (a.k.a. our nephew Brevan) had his fifth birthday party yesterday.

We traveled to Beals for Mother's Day, Brev's pary and his baby sister Makenna's church blessing.  It was a jam packed day that started with some of the most outrageous, naughty, belligerent behavior from Maya to date.  It was a day that chewed me up and spit me out back at home 10 hours later after 4 hours of driving and the days festivities feeling like a burst party balloon that lies shriveled and pathetic on the ground.

It didn't help that I am also having some significant allergic reaction to I don't know what.  Yesterday was the worst of it, with little red intensely itchy dots all over my arms, legs and trunk.  My deductive reasoning tells me I was in contact with something poisonous in the garden last week that spread from my forearms and has left me feeling like I want to hook up to a Benadryl drip.  Last night, exhausted from the day, I fell promptly asleep only to awaken every 15 minutes shredding my skin with my fingernails.  Finally at 1 a.m I got up, took another Benadryl and consulted the Internet.  Desperate for relief I took the advice I found and rubbed the inside of a banana peel all over my body to stop the itching.  (I could write an entire blog post about the wisdom of consulting the Internet and acting on your findings whilst in a state of utter desperation but will leave that aside for now.)

The banana, or the banana placebo effect, worked like a charm and I finally fell asleep.

Teach me to garden.

But back to yesterday...attendees of the party were encouraged to come dressed as a Superhero or princess.  Ella and Maya polished up their princess get ups from the Bippidi Bobbiti Boutique in Disney World and wore them with pride.



(For the record, I think Maya could have pulled off almost any super villain but she wanted to go as Cinderella instead.  Not that it stopped her from barking orders at us and telling us what we could and couldn't do.)

But whose to say dressing up is only for kids?

Brevan's mom, Kristi, was Electra.  (I confess I don't know who that is but then again I live in girl world and know very little about the Superhero sphere.)


Tricia went as Bat Girl (and rocked it I might add.)


Unfortunately, I allowed myself to be swept up in the wave of excitement and, after much deliberation between going as Supermom or Cat Woman, I regrettably choose the later.

If such a thing as costume remorse, like buyer's remorse, exists then I have it.

I think it was more sex kitten than Cat Woman and the idea in my head was better than the application. After the requisite laughs from the adults and the initial awe on my nephew's face that I too had dressed up for his big day, I found myself longing for my clothes that were back at Sandi's parents house. 

It didn't help my ego at all that instead of being perceived as a threatening super villain, the kids would come up to me and say "Kitty, will you push me on the swing?"  and "Come over here kitty!" in high pitched, motherese voices.  Truthfully, the only one even slightly frightened was Kristi's dog who growled at me and hunched low when I appeared.  Perhaps she was just taking issue (fairly) with my massive fashion risk.

Sandi went as "Super Pirate" at our nephew's behest.


Makenna, who was beautifully blessed while surrounded by her family earlier in the day, and her grandmother (who is the builder of the extraordinary house you see behind her- the woman knows no end of talent, I tell you.)

Favorite quotes of the day:

Sandi: "It's really disconcerting to have only one eye."

Me (forming my hands into makeshift claws)  "Do I look fierce?"
Sandi: "About as fierce as if a gerbil were going that."

Trish: "I got into Dad's truck in my Bat Girl costume and thought, being an aunt is too much fun."

Me (when Sandi lightly scratched my arm in the car): "Only scratch me if you can scratch me like you mean it."

Sandi: "There's my sword.  I've been looking everywhere for it."

I think next year I want a Mother's Day of my own (to share with Sandi, of course), absent of running this way and that, one that involves a slow start, digging in the garden (or maybe not since it got me Poison Oak) and, ideally, climbing a mountain.  If it's not asking for too much, I might also like it if my kids understood the whole point of the day such that instead of a lovely card with a heaping side of whining, complaining, and bad attitudes we might be blessed with some good 'ol fashion appreciation.

One thing is for sure though:  mother's make the world go round.  Without mothers to nurture, to foster, to care for, to be devoted to, and even to manufacture their babies, the landscape of this world would be without any heart or soul.  I think that it is only by becoming mothers ourselves that we comprehend the magnitude of what our mothers did for us that has allowed us to exist.

Sandi's Aunt Suzie wrapped it all up in a neat package yesterday when she said, "Being a mother to me means loving someone in a way that you would give up your life for him or her." 

Yes, I crave time to myself and space and room to breath. I beg for quiet and barter for peace.  At times I feel I am not cut out for this profession.  But, in the blink of an eye and without a moment's hesitation, I would run in front of a car to push my child out of the way or plunge into a frozen lake if she had fallen through. 

Perhaps our girls are too young to really "get it."  Perhaps while their minds are young and their understandings undeveloped, it can be enough that I am grateful to be their mother.  Even when Sandi and I have to do rock/paper/scissors to settle who will wrestle Maya out of the inappropriate outfit she picked to wear to church.