In my opinion, if I want to show Gabi happiness and love, I have to show and teach her those things. We are the world to our children and they love us, so why won’t they want to be like mommy or daddy? Everyone that meets Gabi, always says that she is my mirror image. On a daily basis, I remind myself that she will copy everything I say, eat and do.
I am blessed to say that she is surrounded by great people. There is not a thing I want to change about her. She fits perfectly into our lives. Writing this post, I can’t help but to laugh at myself. Gabi brought some new habits into my life as well so here goes:
Perfectionist and neat freak – I am a pain in the butt sometimes, but everything in my house has a place and should be in that place unless being used.
Gabi: If the bathroom mat is folded over, she will fix it. Any open door or cupboard she will close it. Any toys out of its place, she will make sure it finds it way back (this can become quite the escapade between her and myself, as she sometimes finds a place that she seems to think is more appropriate for storage than the place I had. For ex. Gabi firmly believes that the right place for my makeup brush is between her bed and the wall while I prefer to keep it with my makeup. Let’s just say that as soon as the brush is in the makeup bag it will quietly find its way to her storage spot and vice versa.)
The bad
I have two things that my sisters always go on about – Stuffing my mouth and swearing.... Yes indeed I have flaws (more than I’d like to mention), but in my defence chocolate is just so much better when my mouth is stuffed to a point where chewing is hard work(burn the calories)and there are only a few things as satisfying as swearing when you’ve just hit your toe on the bed side table(other words don’t seem to quite cut it).
Gabi: A week ago, we had a rough morning. She was teething and sleep was out of the question, I had a busy week at work so by the end of the week my battery was running low. That morning my patience ran out on the way to the car (keep in mind, walking down stairs with 4 bags on one shoulder, Gabi on my hip and her caring her dolls). Opening the garage door, the bags dropped, her baby doll dropped and then I dropped the word: “Moer”. Now this didn’t even occur to me until out of her mouth she repeated that word. I tried saying a different word in hopes she would believe that I actually said that, but when that failed I just laughed and started to sing one of her songs to distract her.
Gabi: Sunday my sister gave her a bread roll, just so she can stuff her mouth full and ask for more... just the way her mother does .
The Funny
I think most moms out there will agree to the flowing habits they adopted since having kids.
• Sing along to all the song to Gabi’s CDs.
• Using only the back burners while cooking.
• Hear crying that you strongly believe is your baby, making you go check and then finally
realizing it was actually a cat singing at that ungodly hour of the night.
• When I hear a kid yell – “mom” I automatically yell back: ”Mommy’s coming”.
• I do not share my brownies – so I hide them in my wardrobe.
• Even though I know she is fast asleep and use to all the sounds and the dogs barking, I will
still ‘shhhhh’ everyone.
• When out for lunch, I will order only food that I can share with her.
This is not a habit but more a stamp on knowing that you are a true loving mother... you can’t wait to drop the kids at Granny for a sleepover but that night all you can think about is your kids and
that you miss them dearly.
So good, bad, funny or ugly we are all just human beings. Just remember, no one is perfect but sometimes go have a minute and think about yourself. This is a great opportunity to work on your bad habits, if there is something about you, you wish you can change, bring the change to your children. Besides you can make a coffee date out thinking these things through, any excuse for a coffee, is a good one.
I always remind myself – there is only 3 things your children needs – Your love, attention and food. So my pantry is fully stocked, my heart is full of love and my attention is fully focus on Gabi. Like I said, she fits perfectly into my life.