My friend Valerie called before my son was born (maybe early March 2006) to chat but to share some of her wisdom from caring for her newborn son born that January. I remember she said a friend of hers vowed early on not to complain when things got rough in the middle of the night with her newborn; instead, she and her husband would simply say, “This is awesome.” I thought of that often when my son was a newborn and am remembering that again not just in the middle of our newborn sleepless nights but in our transition to three-years-old and transition to managing two children and transition to no time for grown-ups to hang and on and on and on. Oh, it’s so easy to whine and to give in to the grumpy. I let the nights get the best of me sometimes, and it’s not pretty. I want to remember Valerie’s friend, though, and just hold onto a nicer password even if it’s mumbled through clenched teeth: This. Is. Awesome.
(Happy Birthday to Valerie, by the way.)
The Great Mother 