Mother's Day Reflection
Being an adopted child, I never met anyone who resembled me in any way among the family members. My parents were fabulous (for Republicans), may they rest in peace, and I was so lucky that they raised me and not some fundamentalist whack jobs, but anyone who knew us, let's face it, noticed that I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was greatly aware of it especially when we learned about genetics in 8th grade. My blonde hair and green eyes just didn't fit in those charts we had to do in school. brown/brown brown/brown brown/brown brown/brown I was 5'9 by 7th grade and one of the tallest members of the extended family too. I was a freak. Everyone was just so darn petite. Size 2. bleh. I had size 10 shoes in 6th grade. As I recall, that the was the topic of discussion one Christmas.
"Oh my, her feet are enormous. How ever can you find shoes for her?", they remarked as if I wasn't there.
"They look like canoes."
"Gunboats", said the size 5's.
Well of course they had size 5 shoes. They were 5 feet tall! I wish someone would have pointed that out to the crowd back then.
I was always told I was hard to shop for because I had those awful long legs and long arms. My clothes weren't found in the petite department. They always had me on a diet as if by some miracle I would shrink lengthwise.
To add insult to injury, in my elementary school, I was the tallest kid in the whole school. Mind you, I am not that tall. Mostly everyone in the school was of Irish and Sicilian decent. I had to sit out "Hey Jude" at all the school dances because the boys wouldn't dare slow dance with a girl who was taller. Bet they wish they could slow dance with a tall blonde now. I later found out that I am of Italian and Irish decent. My birth parents must have been freaks too.
I went to college, graduated, got married. Too young. After a few years of marriage and buying a house, I felt the urge to procreate.
It wasn't easy achieving motherhood, but it was fun trying for 2 years. Well after a while... maybe not. I think I was asleep sometimes, but God bless the husband for taking his job so seriously. At first we did the thermometer thing for about a year and when that didn't work, we just decided to do it as often as possible... everyday if necessary for the next year. When I finally got pregnant right around my 30th birthday and our 8th year of marriage, the husband and I laughed about how we had painstakingly practiced birth control for all those years... for nothing. I was just happy that I didn't have to have sex anymore.
We had wanted to save up, buy a decent house and have the means to provide for children before we undertook such a responsibility. It wasn't a very Catholic notion. I had no intention of working fulltime once the baby was born. Commuting to Manhattan was getting on my nerves. I happily swapped my pantyhose for blue jeans.
The first year of stay at home mommyhood was fine but I finally entered a KMart for the first time in my life when my son was about one and the savings had dried up. I then discovered the joys of garage sale-ing and accepting hand-me-downs from my cousins. My art major kicked in and the creativity flowed once again allowing me to enjoy the little things in life. I learned all about birds, flowers, coins, fossils, shells, fish, dinosaurs, animals...
Boy was I happy to meet my son, Will, the male version of me but with brown eyes. Beautiful brown eyes. My first genetic relative. What's more, he's a vast improvement over me too. He's the new improved version. How lucky I am. He loves me too. I learned more from my son in the past 20 years than I learned in the previous 30 years while I was on my own. I'm so grateful to have had the chance to be his mother. It is such an honor.
It's kind of funny now how he worries about me and tells me what I should do as if it is some miracle that I somehow survived 50 years without his input. This morning I put his hair in a ponytail while he was standing at the kitchen island making something to eat. He grumbled but let me have my way. Hey do something for me on Mother's Day, kid. I want to see your face today. You're beautiful.
Here's a Mother's Day Card for all you mom's out there.
Happy Mother's Day!
"Oh my, her feet are enormous. How ever can you find shoes for her?", they remarked as if I wasn't there.
"They look like canoes."
"Gunboats", said the size 5's.
Well of course they had size 5 shoes. They were 5 feet tall! I wish someone would have pointed that out to the crowd back then.
I was always told I was hard to shop for because I had those awful long legs and long arms. My clothes weren't found in the petite department. They always had me on a diet as if by some miracle I would shrink lengthwise.
To add insult to injury, in my elementary school, I was the tallest kid in the whole school. Mind you, I am not that tall. Mostly everyone in the school was of Irish and Sicilian decent. I had to sit out "Hey Jude" at all the school dances because the boys wouldn't dare slow dance with a girl who was taller. Bet they wish they could slow dance with a tall blonde now. I later found out that I am of Italian and Irish decent. My birth parents must have been freaks too.
I went to college, graduated, got married. Too young. After a few years of marriage and buying a house, I felt the urge to procreate.
It wasn't easy achieving motherhood, but it was fun trying for 2 years. Well after a while... maybe not. I think I was asleep sometimes, but God bless the husband for taking his job so seriously. At first we did the thermometer thing for about a year and when that didn't work, we just decided to do it as often as possible... everyday if necessary for the next year. When I finally got pregnant right around my 30th birthday and our 8th year of marriage, the husband and I laughed about how we had painstakingly practiced birth control for all those years... for nothing. I was just happy that I didn't have to have sex anymore.
We had wanted to save up, buy a decent house and have the means to provide for children before we undertook such a responsibility. It wasn't a very Catholic notion. I had no intention of working fulltime once the baby was born. Commuting to Manhattan was getting on my nerves. I happily swapped my pantyhose for blue jeans.
The first year of stay at home mommyhood was fine but I finally entered a KMart for the first time in my life when my son was about one and the savings had dried up. I then discovered the joys of garage sale-ing and accepting hand-me-downs from my cousins. My art major kicked in and the creativity flowed once again allowing me to enjoy the little things in life. I learned all about birds, flowers, coins, fossils, shells, fish, dinosaurs, animals...
Boy was I happy to meet my son, Will, the male version of me but with brown eyes. Beautiful brown eyes. My first genetic relative. What's more, he's a vast improvement over me too. He's the new improved version. How lucky I am. He loves me too. I learned more from my son in the past 20 years than I learned in the previous 30 years while I was on my own. I'm so grateful to have had the chance to be his mother. It is such an honor.
It's kind of funny now how he worries about me and tells me what I should do as if it is some miracle that I somehow survived 50 years without his input. This morning I put his hair in a ponytail while he was standing at the kitchen island making something to eat. He grumbled but let me have my way. Hey do something for me on Mother's Day, kid. I want to see your face today. You're beautiful.
Here's a Mother's Day Card for all you mom's out there.
Happy Mother's Day!
Posted by Blondesense Liz | 1:28 PM |
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