Hey Mamas,

The day has come.  Mother’s Day!  For all you sleep-deprived, creators of tiny monsters, get excited! Tomorrow is the day of sleeping in, sipping champagne and being appreciated for the other 364 days of the year when you’re wiping butts, molding minds and juggling life.  Nothing but pampering & relaxing for 24 hours, right?  Well, not exactly but it is a day to appreciate your crazy, lovable and amazing kids, and to appreciate the lessons that come along with them.  For me I realize that the more I know, the more I don’t know.

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Take a look four years ago. Denny and I were feeling pretty ready for kids. So we headed out during Mother’s Day on a celebratory done-with-grad-school / could-be-the-last-vacation-before-baby trip to the Caribbean. Ahh, we were relaxed and excited. Why wouldn’t we be? We knew kids were on the horizon and we also thought we knew it all. Our kids would never have fried foods.  Our kids would always sleep in their own beds.  They would never have meltdowns, and we would never walk around in public covered in bodily fluids.  Nope, not us.  We were gonna be awesome.

Living the dream… little did we know that we were about to get smacked with a wave of reality.

Then came three years ago.  Mother’s Day 2012.  We did it!  We actually made a human being, which was shocking considering the fact that I can barely make a casserole.  Baby McGee was yet to spend a day outside the womb, but we still felt pretty confident that we would be ahh-mazing parents. In fact, we even took advantage of Mother’s Day weekend to find out if we would be having a little boy or girl.  I thought I was quite the mom of the year throwing a party while pregnant.  Yep, you should have seen how tired I thought I was.

One of my favorite days in life.  I bet Kenz was in my belly at that exact moment reading up on how to excel at being a colic-y baby.

 Enter two years ago.  And enter real tiredness. Our sweet girl had arrived 7 months prior and that year I finally got it. I understood what it meant to be humbled by a sweet and cuddly 8 lb, 3 oz baby with colic.  Mayday, mayday!  Our confidence was plunging rapidly toward the ground.

We took this busy little lady to a fancy brunch for Mother’s Day. We scarfed down food while bouncing her on our lap, and then got the heck out of dodge while we finished chewing. Clearly it was very relaxing.

Then there was last year.  We were finally hitting our stride with this parenting thing.  One kid didn’t seem so scary anymore.  We successfully handled outings, vacations and dinners in restaurant.  We were unstoppable… and then I took a test the Friday before Mother’s Day.  A pregnancy test… and it was positive.  Wow, we were going to have another baby!!  Wow, we were going to have another baby??? What were we thinking?!?  We were hoping for a new addition, but suddenly our confidence crashed and burned.  Two.  Two kids?!?  Were we sure we could handle this?  Our Mother’s Day was a mix of joy and how-in-the-hell-can-we-handle-this nervousness.

Big sis to be!

And now, our family is complete. We’ve had our crash and burn moments, but we’ve also had our life as a family of four is awesome moments.  Our kids have constantly reminded us that as much as we look like we are the ones in charge, we’re not.  But they also remind us that life is best when you slow down. They remind us that life is better as a family of four than it ever was as a family of two or three.  And they remind us that even if we don’t always know what we’re doing, most issues can be solved with a big hug and fruit snacks.

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This year Happy Mother’s Day has more meaning than ever. But it’s really about the two little ones who made me a mommy and the tremendous support around us who make it possible to get through each day.

Happy Mother’s Day to my awesome mom who showed me that life isn’t complete without lots of fun and some occasional confetti.

Happy Mother’s Day to my mother-in-law who always reminds me that there is no return policy on Denny.  She raised a great son who turned out to be an even better husband and Dad .

Happy Mother’s Day to my amazing and courageous sister who is raising two adorable little boys and running a full marathon in one week!  Can we say SuperMama??

Happy Mother’s Day to my sis-in-law Meg who is about to be Dr. and can rock out to Taylor Swift.

And Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms who stay up late wake up early scaring away monsters under the bed and rocking away sweet babies who aren’t tired.  Happy Mother’s Day to the new mamas and the veteran mamas.  Happy Mother’s Day to the moms trying to let go while yearning to hold on.  Happy Mother’s Day to all the women near, far and in our hearts who raised us to know what it is to be great Moms.

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And now, bring on the champagne!