top ten memories with my mom

Posted on 23. Feb, 2012 by Princess Lasertron in personal

Today is my mom’s birthday and I wanted to show how much I love her by sharing ten of my favorite memories as her daughter.

1. When we drove to the American Sewing Expo together right after I found out I was pregnant and we stopped almost every twenty minutes on the way there for me to go to the bathroom. Once we stopped outside a Cheesecake Factory and I ran inside and got slices for us which we ate in the car for the next two days. We listened to Coast to Coast AM as we drove all night (she’s a night owl too) and she listened to me explain everything I know about that show I love so much. We stopped at IKEA and bought my baby’s first toys–an abacus and a big stuffed panda. We stopped at an antique store and bought an beautiful upholstered olive rocking chair and wedged it into the back of our van.

2. In first grade when I was The Littlest Ginger in The Nutcracker at the Orpheum, we were running late backstage and a hair stylist and my mom were frantically trying to curl my short little pigtails into beautiful sausage ringlets. The hairstylist’s side looked perfect, and my mom’s side looked a bit incongruous. I also have a really fond memory of shopping for the required blush and lipstick colors for that show, and the smell of the Cover Girl blush when I opened the compact. Every time my mom put blush on in the bathroom mirror, she gave me a little too.

3. My mom holding me in her rocking chair after I was bullied in seventh grade. In junior high, you feel so pressured to act so mature and cool, but at that moment as I cried there was nowhere else in the world that would have made me feel better, more loved, or more worthwhile.

4. When she helped me clean my whole house because Where Women Create was coming to photograph my space for the magazine. We cleaned out our old bedroom–and it was like hoarders in there, it was like you open the door, throw something in, and slam the door hoping the five feet of crap didn’t tumble out the door–and scrubbed every surface from floor to ceiling. She brought her beautiful pink trays and glasses and baked bread before the crew came over, served pink lemonade, stood silently in the background offering support. My mom showed me how to make it pretty. She’s the queen of it.

5. When I came home from a hospital stay and she had repainted my room and moved in a cozy new bed. It was the best surprise I’ve ever gotten and it helped me heal so much.

6. Playing in the public pool at age five or six (my brother was a baby) and looking up at her sitting on a bench nearby, with her polka dot swimsuit and hat on. I remember thinking how beautiful my mom was. Every time I go to the pool with Alice now (at that very same pool), I sort of deep-down hope she’s thinking the same thing about me.

7. Sitting in a fort of blue velvet couch cushions in my living room and seeing my mom’s hand slide a white ceramic tray of saltines with peanut butter through a crack in the wall. Feeling really grateful for the snack.

8. Getting sandwiches for lunch and going to the mall to shop for new shoes on my wedding day. We ran into a few of my friends–”Aren’t you getting married today?” My mom and I just had fun all day and it was so casual. Minimal fuss.

9. Looking over at my mom while I labored in the hospital bed in my damp swimsuit after being in the tub. I puked a lot. She smiled at me lovingly and remembered all the things I said and muttered and cried about. This was hour 40 and I yelled for the nurses to call her when my doctor was suggesting a c-section. She was there in five minutes and didn’t have to say anything. Saturday Night Live was on–Betty White. I don’t remember her leaving but when I was ready to push, they called her again and my whole family waited outside the birthing suite to meet Alice. My mom was there when I needed her maybe more than ever in my life, and when I looked over at her I knew we were both thinking about her long labor with me. She had been there, and I was crossing over from being a daughter to a mother and she was there.

10. Finding a box with photos and an old college writing assignment from my mom’s years as a journalism major at Iowa State. Reading her thoughts in her own voice, I related to her on an individual level–not just as a daughter or a mother or a wife, the identities we perform and have in common. I looked at her own personal snapshots–her ironing in a dorm while drinking a Miller High Life, posing in a ruffled maxi dress at a dance, in a sweatshirt laughing. I appreciate so much the complex person my mother is, and I love how we become better and better friends as time goes by.

Visit my mom’s blog and wish her many happy returns today.
xo
meg