Tuesday, April 10, 2012

If You Give A Mama A Trip To Target...

I can remember a Mother's Day from when I was younger, probably eleven or twelve, where my dad took my sister and I to a Detroit Tigers baseball game, leaving my mom alone. At the time, I can remember thinking how sad she must have been, that her whole family was abandoning her on the most special of all days and how she must have spent the afternoon waiting by the window for us to return.

And then I became a mom myself, and I imagine now that the second our car rolled out of the driveway she was doing a little happy dance in the living room. It was probably the best damn Mother's Day she'd had in the history of ever.

On Friday, my in-laws came and scooped up Anna for a day of Costco shopping and visiting relatives in Grand Rapids. All week, I had been planning in my head what I was going to do with my temporary freedom, and it mostly involved a Starbucks run and a glorious, peaceful, toddler-free trip to Target where I meandered through the aisles and stocked up on Easter basket goodies. The only bad thing? The part where I had to pay for all the fun stuff I had blissfully thrown in my cart.

As if the day couldn't get better, my Target adventure was followed by a sushi lunch date with Mike. We sat at the bar, conversed like real grown-ups, and didn't have to stop our conversation twenty times to pick food up off the floor or flag the waitress over to bring us some more milk or more napkins. It was glorious.

And I swear to you, the rest of the weekend played out like that children's book, "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie", because it seems those few precious hours of Anna-free time were just what I needed. I finally cleaned and organized the toys that were threatening to take over our living room. I swept and mopped every floor in our house. I washed windows. Heck, I even painted my toenails. The next morning, I cleaned and vacuumed out my car. I was on fire, and all it had taken was a soy latte, that red bullseye, and some wasabi.

Sometimes, as a stay-at-home-mom, I don't feel entitled to take days off. It's so hard to remember that even though I'm not on a payroll or punching a clock, I so need those mental health days to decompress and drink coffee alone and try on twenty things without a two-year-old trying to escape the dressing room.

All my cleaning and toe-nail polishing was followed up with a visit to meet my dear friend's baby and a trip to my parents' house to celebrate Easter. We ate cheesy potatoes, eggs benedict, and lots of chocolate, and finished the day with an egg hunt out in the yard.


This is what the mullet looks like first thing in the morning.

"No pictures!"

Ready to hunt.





My Aunt Janet is the master of the egg hunt.




I hope everyone's weekend was as awesome as ours, even if you didn't get to go to Target.

This afternoon, we embark on a trip down to Florida - Mike is fishing with his brother, and Anna, my mom and I are heading down to visit my sister. I'm looking forward to the beach and the sun. And maybe even giving my mom an afternoon or two off so she can go to Target!

Happy Tuesday!

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