There are so many things about being a Mom that are just...awesome. One of the coolest unexpected perks though is when your kid gets to that just-perfect age where they become convinced you are superhuman.
My son is at that point, that wonderful, brief time where Mommy and Daddy are magic. I love it. There are so many little, basic things that I can do that leave my son in awe of me, and that is incredible. Here are some examples.
Action: Telling him he can pick out any costume he wants from the Halloween store at the mall.
Perception: "Mommy is rich!"
Reality: I felt like crap that no one seemed to have his first choice, an astronaut costume. Also, everything at the Halloween store is cheap and made in the Far East, so none of the toddler costumes were over $30. Of course, he picked the airplane pilot costume, that was $29.99.
Action: Baking cookies for him.
Perception: "Mommy is a master chef!"
Reality: I am a terrible cook, and the cookies were largely inedible, since I didn't add enough shortening and they had the consistency of cornbread. No one else wanted the cookies besides the toddler with indiscriminate taste.
Action: Playing with puppets with him.
Perception: "Mommy is some amazing and hilarious combination of Jim Henson and Steve Martin...back in the '70s when both were way more relevant."
Reality: I'm a 26-year-old with a college education and a turtle hand puppet, which I have given an old man voice and made clumsy to the point of slapstick. But, for a 2-year-old, a grumpy turtle going, "Argh! My knees!" while sliding backwards off a wheel is the height of comedy.
Action: Taking him to the museum or aquarium and pointing out all the different species of fish to him.
Perception: "Mommy is a genius!"
Reality: Mommy used to work at a fish store and is a bit of an amateur liminologist, a hobby almost as nerdy as lepidoptery or stamp-collecting.
Action: Fixing Brobee's scratched-up eye.
Perception: "Mommy has magical healing powers!"
Reality: I colored in the scratched part of his toy's eye with a Sharpie while he napped.
There are just so many ways my son makes me feel like this amazing person, because that's how he sees me. Like how there's no one else he wants to play toy guitars and rock out with when a cool song comes on Pandora. Or how, after seeing my bandage from giving blood, he slid an elastic hairband up his elbow and proudly announced, "I got a boo-boo like Mommy."
Of course, I'm not doing anything incredible. I'm just taking a little extra time; extra time to go costume-shopping, or to the museum, or to fix a toy, or bake some truly awful desserts. But it's those little things, beyond just providing food and shelter, that take me from being a mother to being a Mommy.
If you have kids, you're probably a superhero in their eyes, too. And if you're not, it's really easy to change that.
Just takes a little time.
No comments:
Post a Comment