Today is my rock climbing son’s first birthday…
as a married man!
I was still a working Mum when this little bundle of joy joined us.
I’d caught the ‘flu and it left a lingering cough that made me feel absolutely terrible for my last month.
I put off a lot of Mums-to-be in the waiting room of my doctor’s office, they’d look disapprovingly at me as I hacked noisily, sounding for all the world like I was a heavy smoker!
I moaned and groaned on the sofa at home after work not wanting to eat, yet knowing I had to,
“Butter and marmite toast and a cup of tea,” I’d say feebly when hubs asked.
For some reason I couldn’t keep cattle cars out of my mind. Morbid thoughts of Jews transported to the death camps in the middle of winter, shivering, frightened, coughing. How much worse than me they must’ve felt, unable to curl up on a warm couch, sip tea and eat marmite toast.
I felt so bad!
I asked my doctor if he could do anything?
“As soon as that baby is born you’ll be fine,” he said, patting my arm.
And I was!
I enjoyed my eight weeks’ maternity leave, I turned nut brown in the beautiful Spring weather, regained my figure, baptized him on Holy Saturday at the vigil and threw my first Easter party!
I listened to Sting’s album, “Nothing Like the Sun,”
every time I sat down in the kitchen to feed him.
I made a music memory that still takes me back after twenty-six years…
My second son was fair haired and blue-eyed, robust and cuddly, happy.
Warm and fuzzy thoughts filled my mind from the moment he was born.
I loved to hold him, he fit snugly against my heart.
I walked with him, rocked him, cuddled him while he snoozed.
He grew quickly,
Today, although he no longer fits snugly against my heart,
He holds on to his dream of living self sufficiently, enjoying the outdoors, working with animals and Having and Holding.
I still look forward to his embrace whenever I see him,
because now I fit snugly against his heart.
Happy Birthday Simon.
I love you!
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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