Motherhood is like this…
6:00: Rising before children are awake is difficult. Go back to sleep, while the house is quiet, I tell myself. But this hour of yoga makes me a better Mom, a better person, so I head for my mat.
6:15: Little ones, supposed to be asleep, are up to join me. I plow forward with my routine.
6:22: I hear a clap. This is the signal that someone needs help in the bathroom. I pause the DVD and head to the bathroom. (The signal is his idea… not mine.)
6:22½: OMG. Send the boy to the bathtub to soak, while I clean up this mess. A yoga chant is still humming through my head, challenging me to stay calm, as I scrub the floor, the toilet seat, and my own toes, and then the boy.
6: 38: Scrub under my fingernails again to get rid of smell.
6:39: Begin yoga DVD again…
6: 43: The little boys begin searching through the laundry piles for costumes that are not yet washed… they begin laughing and giggling, while I press forward through the routine.
6:51: I hear one say, “Close the door… all the way.” While in crow pose, I begin to imagine this:
my little boy inside the front-loading washer, and the door is pushed shut. The older son laughs, and hits the button to start the machine. He screams, at what he’s done, and I frantically rush in and begin pushing buttons to stop the machine. I suddenly remember the one time I forgot a pair of stocks, but the controls locked and I couldn’t get the machine to stop, or the doors to open. I run to the fuse box to shut off the power, and I think about the machine’s “air-tight” seal. When I get back to the machine, I realize I’ve turned off the button that “releases the door.” And all I can see in my mind is my little boy trapped behind the glass of the washer, his hands pushing against the glass. With no air.
6:51 ½ : I jump out of crow pose and head over to the laundry area to see if the pictures in my imagination are real. I thankfully see the washer empty, everyone still breathing. But there are sparkles all over the floor, and the laundry. Glitter. Everywhere.
Notice, the dainty socks.
I should have stayed in bed.
This, is truly, Motherhood.
For the PBN Blog Blast Microsoft’’s “Portraits of Mom” campaign that runs from April 19-May 11, 2008. “Portraits of Mom” features an opportunity to visit a neighborhood Windows Live Portrait Studio in San Francisco or Brooklyn where you’ll be treated to a free professional family photo that you can edit and share with your friends and family.
