If you have been reading the blog since the beginning you will know that my mother and I have a fairly typical mother/daughter relationship. We are very close, and talk on the phone a couple times a day, but also need to be around each other in small doses as we tend to get on each other's nerves pretty quickly. As you also might remember, my parents live in Florida for the majority of the year, but since M was born they have been summering in Rhode Island to be closer to my family. They live the perfect distance away- not close enough for the unannounced pop-in, but still close enough to be at my door within an hour.
When you are used to having your parents a plane ride away, and seeing them once every couple months, it is not easy at first to adjust to having them in your lives as much as I have this summer. You basically go from being an independent adult, with a family of your own to take care of, back to being a child and being mothered (and fathered)....
You know you are low on detergent?
Did you water the flowers on the front porch?
Don't forget to put your clean clothes away!
Do your sheets need to be changed?
I will be the first to admit that there was a serious period of adjustment this summer to having my parents back in my life every week - I can be a total B to them, and I fully admit that. I know that everything they do, they do out of love and want nothing but to make my life easier (especially being pregnant this summer) but at first they came into our house like two tornadoes that couldn't sit still and needed "projects" to keep them busy...projects that I told them I didn't want to do got done, and not to my liking and all I wanted to do was scream "go back to Florida I can do this on my own!" Well, oh how my tune has changed in the last 2.5 months!
My mom has been staying with us a few days here and there as we await the arrival of baby girl 2.0. With my husband away on trial for a while, and my father being away on business, it just made sense for her to stay with us. Right now she is back in RI, and boy do I wish she was still here with us. See my mom is a combination of Nanny McPhee, Mrs. Doubtfire and Mary Poppins, with a sprinkle of Jim Hensen, all rolled into one fabulously active and imaginative 60 year old (who by the way last week got mistaken for my sister on two different occasions - good for her, but what does that say about how I look right now at 33? HA).
What other grandmother would be caught dead on the playroom floor with her legs in the air teaching her 2 year old grand daughter old Jane Fonda workout moves? While wearing a tutu? On her head?
Not only is she M's absolute favorite person in the world - what child wouldn't love a woman that makes every inanimate object come to life with a different voice, or can sing like Julie Andrews - but she also has become insanely neat in her old age and our house is immaculate when she stays here. I used to constantly tell her to stop cleaning up, but I have learned just to leave her alone and let her do her thing now. There is never a dirty dish in the sink, the beds are made each morning, the pillows on the couch are fluffed and in-line and the laundry basket is always empty at the end of the day. Now she has been gone since Thursday, less than 48 hours, and our house is back to being it's usual mess.
I feel badly that when she comes to our house she is basically cleaning and cooking and playing with M non-stop, but she tells me that she is happy to do it, so I have learned just to keep my mouth shut and let her go about her crazy ways. Who wouldn't want someone to come to their house and help with the kids and do the housework for free? Of course I like having her around as well, as she is always good company, and I love that M adores her to death - whenever she leaves M is all "Where did she go?? We have to find her Mom! We have to find her now!"
And my dad is always a huge help when he is here too. He is pretty old school when it comes to pregnant woman - for instance he always tries to make things as easy as possible for me now, like driving me right to the door of restaurants so I don't have to walk from the parking lot...which of course makes me say "dad are you serious?" but of course he is doing it just out of love. I think he thinks I should be sitting on the couch right now with my feet up (which sounds marvelous) letting everyone around me do things for me...maybe he is right, but like him I like to do things myself and get bored pretty easily when I don't have a project to do. So when my dad is here, he takes charge of everything outside from cleaning up the deck to weeding and watering plants. I think he has gone to Lowes about 100 times in the past 2.5 months...but who wouldn't want free landscaping!!
So the point of this post...I have come to realize that I pretty much have the best parents a girl could ask for. I am incredibly thankful for everything they have done this summer for us, as well as the help they will be giving us once this baby arrives (any day now). I will miss them terribly once they head back south, and don't look forward to traveling down there with two children in tow, but for now I will enjoy their company, their craziness and their tremendous help they give us!
And for $20 an hour, and a diet Pepsi, they will come to your house too!
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