For grandmas, grandaunts and godmas

I want to say it is a day that doesn't mean anything to me because every day should be a day where mums are acknowledged, appreciated and every day should be a day that we should relish in the thought of being a mum. But all mums know it's hard to be all mushy about our children when we're chasing after them, bone-tired, frustrated at having to break up the nth fight for the day or our brains are dribbling out of our ears from singing "The Wheels On the Bus" for the millionth time. And more often than not, our kids don't know enough to be grateful and appreciative of the fact that our social lives have been dialled down to almost nothing and we are constantly sleep-deprived.

That said, I decided that I needed to put the cynicism aside and teach my kids the importance to show the appreciation to those who look after them and later on those who teach them. This possibly stems from teaching the ungrateful offspring of others who don't know their "Please" from their "thank you"s.

Of course, with 22-month-olds, gratitude is an alien concept. But they got that something important was happening seeing that they got to stay out late on Friday night at dinner and their messy destructiveness was required by Mommy to help make presents. I decided on getting them to make something that wasn't too far removed from what they'd usually do. And what they usually do is make a mess of things. Activities don't usually go the way I want them to. Paints are squished instead of put on paper. Paper is torn and ripped instead of being drawn on. Blocks are strewn instead of being built.

So, I gave them all sorts of coloured paper and let them tear and shred it into bits. The bits were all collected and put into his and hers containers; lest they fight over it. The point was for them to toss and throw the shredded paper around where I'd laid laminating paper sticky side up. Both kids were annoyed though, at the fact that they were unsuccessful in making a further mess out of the strewn paper bits. The rest was up to Packrat and I though, where we made a last minute dash to Ikea to get photo frames and coloured paper and worked past midnight cutting stars out of the laminated mess, pasting them onto coloured paper and framing them up.











It had a nice colourful feel to it, it wasn't store-bought and the kids knew that they had made it and were most proud of it. Once again, the cynical me thinks that it'll just sit around and collect dust but the mommy part of me is happy to give these to the grandmas, grand aunts and godmas who have spent so much time with the twins and this is the least I could do to thank them on behalf of the twins on Mother's Day.

What did the twins get me? Nothing. Because I was too tired to make something on behalf of them for myself and that would just be plain silly.



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