Compliments of My Children

Like many moms (or so I think) I fluctuate between wanting to impress upon my children all that I do for them and how thankful they should be to have me for a mom; and at other times I am completely overwhelmed that I have the privilege to be their mother.

Lately, I've tried to pay attention to the little things my children do to show that they do notice me and the things I do for them. This is HUGE for me since I am the type of wife who needs excessive compliments. Trust me, Ken knows it's not enough to tell me he thinks I'm beautiful everyday or even 8 times a day:-) I need the specifics and to hear it 20 times before it sinks in. So this is huge for me to be quiet and observe!

I've been pleasantly surprised in just the last week and wanted to write down just a few of the compliments I have received:

* One day when I picked up Nathan from school we were just chatting casually about his day. I was asking him how things were going with a kid who had been bothering him at lunchtime. Nathan said that the boy hasn't been bothering him much anymore. He looked around a little sheepishly, smiled, then confessed he had been getting chocolate milk everyday along with pizza, chicken nuggets, and ice cream when the school offered that. And then he said, "I know you've been giving me extra $$ so I would happy at lunch."

I have been giving Nathan about 4 times as much lunch money as I put into Darin's account all year long but I didn't think he had noticed. So when he said that it just melted my heart.

* I was watching a set of twin girls and their brother last week while their parents went out of town. As I was changing the little brother's diaper I had the twins plus my two girls all surrounding me. Rose beamed at me, "You're a good Mommy!" The twin girls immediately replied, "No, my Mommy is a good Mommy." Rose and Ginger didn't take to kindly to that statement and kept screaming their Mommy was a GOOD Mommy. Back and forth they went, it was the cutest argument until they came within seconds of actually having a knock down drag out fight over it.

I explained to all 4 of them that the ALL had a Good Mommys and then everyone calmed down. Which is totally true! When you watch someone's 3 year olds for 3 days you can tell if they have a good mommy.

* Darin was asked by a teacher to do something that he did not want to do. Mainly because he is sometimes a little shy so it scared him. I'm not going to go into the details but he decided to do it anyways and not procrastinate. I was really proud of him. He talked to me about it a little bit, prepared some stuff, and then when it got close to showtime. He pulled me aside, to the point of even asking his siblings if he could talk to mom for a few minutes, and asked me to basically role-play it with him. He mumbled something like Mom, will you listen to what I am thinking about doing and help me.

I've been kind of been emotional lately worrying about Darin turning into a teenager, but for him to share his worries with and then ask for my advice is pretty much the highest compliment he could give me as a mother.

* Nathan happily bounced into the car after a kickball game at school. He threw a bag full of sweaty, smelly uniforms into the backseat and said, "I volunteered you to wash the uniforms Mom! I didn't think you would mind."

So true! I am happy to wash the uniforms, and I love that he feels free to volunteer me to do whatever he needs.