In case you were wondering why I didn't put the word hotel in front of couch, its because we are back to our home in Changsha! I am loving every cold rainy minute of it so far. Chris starts teaching this week and so I am spending the week getting settled in. Which is a perfect time to catch up on blogging!
I wanted to share with you guys the time I got to spend with my mom right after Emerson was born. Yes, that was 2 months ago. Yes, that makes me a slow blogger and a bad daughter but here we are and I am going to write anyways :).
My mom arrived in Thailand the day we got home from the hospital. Talk about divine timing! My mom is a nurse and worked in pre and post natal care and in ICUs during her career. It doesn't hurt that she has raised 3 of the most well adjusted, humble, and beautiful children I have ever had the privilege of knowing. This picture was taken within the first 5 minutes of her arriving after traveling for over 36 hours through 3 different countries. Only my mom can look this chipper after all that.
Chris and I were excited to have her be with us for the first 2 weeks with Emerson. I have to be honest though, I wanted my mom to experience Thailand while she was there, I figured she overcame her fear of flying to come see us and she needed to enjoy a well deserved vacation. It took me about a week and a half of trying to push her out the door to enjoy the sights and sounds of Bangkok to realize that this was the only thing she wanted to do on her 'vacation'.
I never thought of holding a baby as being a vacation. But mom was so happy just to hold her! It made my heart happy to see someone love Emerson as much as Chris and I do. She helped us clean, dress, and feed her. It was especially wonderful when she pushed Chris and I out so that we could have a date night. I had no idea (even though she told me) that we would not be able to do that when she left. Looking back on that time, I was an idiot! I loved coming back and seeing Emerson just sitting in my mom's arms while my mom would sing the same lullabys that she would sing to me.
I did convince my mom to go out and get Thai massages with me one day. It was so much fun to giggle in pain together as the tiny Thai women pulverized us.
Please excuse the dark background, this is from my camera on my phone sans flash with massage ambiance lighting. That is relief on our faces from making it out alive.
Chris and I have lived far away from our families for so long that we have become really independent. I dont always notice it, but it doesn't really bother me to be far away. This helps when you live overseas from your loved ones but I think it kept me from seeing what this time together really was. You see, I was so happy for my mom to come, but I thought of it as a time to hang out, kind of like any other time we could see each other. I truthfully did not think that Chris and I needed any help with our little baby. In my independent mind, we would just google anything we needed to know or look in our baby books for info. But what I found is that a book has information but it is a crappy way to comfort yourself when you feel lost in a see of diapers, spit up, and onesies. It turns out, I needed my mommy to tell me how to be a mommy. I needed her to say, 'great job!' when I would make it through another day. Motherhood is a wonderful yet humbling experience and even though my mom left 2 months ago, I keep replaying her voice saying 'you're doing a great job!' when I feel like all I did was literally get through the day without having to change my shirt more than three times or when I actually get the dishes or laundry done. Heck, even right now when it's 1pm and I'm contemplating a nap because I'm rocking three solid hours of sleep last night. So on that note, thanks mom, I love you. And you are doing a great job :)
Holy goodness, one: you are not a slow blogger or bad daughter. And two: my mom told me to write "Love Abi" at the top of my to-do list each day. That way if I didn't get anything else on the list done, I could always cross off "Love Abi" and be reminded that it was the most important task on the list anyway. Sounds cheesy but it really helped this type-A, productivity-prone, multi-tasker wife become a slow-down, go-with-Abi's-flow, your-days-are-no-longer-your-own Mommy. You guys are doing great!!
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