Every Day is Mother's Day

Which is why it's totally fine that I am just now posting about it.

Over the past several days I've been watching this:




There is something comforting and and inspiring about caring for my children while watching a mama bird protect her soon-to-be-hatched babies in the nest right outside of our window. They say that as soon as you become a mother you become part of a tribe of other mothers, and it's true. You share knowing glances with strangers at grocery stores. You swap birth stories with other moms as soon as you meet them. But what I've found is that this is not limited to the human species. I have had several experiences where I have literally felt a bond with animal mamas. One of my most poignant experiences, and one which helped lead to my decision to stay home, was pushing baby Sophie in her stroller at the zoo. We walked past the Chimpanzee habitat and I just stared and stared at a mama chimp and her baby. She was swinging around, going about her business, and this baby chimp was on her back. It just looked so natural, like of course she was taking her baby everywhere. I locked eyes with mama chimp and got my confirmation: I am supposed to be with my baby. Instead of fighting the little voices that were nagging me to go back to work, I let go of the struggle and decided to stay home. I felt that my baby and I needed to stick together. (I feel the need to emphasize that this was the best decision for me, but not necessarily for everyone else. There are stay at home moms, full-time working moms, and a million kinds in-between and that is awesome. We're all lucky to be able to choose the best decision for us and our babies!)

So, Mother's Day. It was a lovely day. After a couple of other events we headed down to the last day of a gallery exhibit that I had wanted to see. As an amazing Mother's Day gift, I got to take this home:



Of course, the real art collector's find that I got that day was this:





What it's all about:



(Yes, that is a dinosaur. This is the most recent pic I can find of them together, taken a couple of weeks ago at the science center.)