i want my mommy

After being with us for the past month, my mom left for home this morning. I cried like a baby. And I got all sad and teary on the way home from picking up Nicholas. I think he thinks I have gone crazy, just as he predicted a few weeks ago. Maybe the hormones haven't leveled out yet, or maybe I just got too spoiled by my mom taking care of all of us for the past 4 weeks, or maybe, in the end, we all just want our mommies. She came the Saturday before Naomi was born and helped me get things ready for when I would be in the hospital. She shopped, cooked, cleaned, did laundry...everything. While I was gone, she organized all of my closets and drawers and all the random crap laying around in our house in a couple of days--she got done in less than 4 days what I had tried to do for months. When I came home from the hospital, my house was so clean, I almost didn't recognize it. For the whole month, she made sure everyone ate and was always there just to hold the baby. Sometimes, you just need an extra set of hands to hold the baby so you can take a break, eat, go to the bathroom, shower, tend to the other kids, run an errand, whatever. And before my parents left, they made sure that we had enough food in the house to last us for another month since they know Greg has a ton of work to do and it takes me forever to leave the house with a nursing newborn.

I realized while my mom was here that she and I are more alike than either one of us would admit. We're both a little stubborn and tempermental at times, and at the end of the day, I wish I could do everything as well as she does.



My dad was able to take a week off from work and he drove up last Saturday. He helped out with picking up the kids from camp and he did a lot of holding with Naomi and Emma while my sister was here. Babies love my dad -- he has an amazing ability to calm them down and get them to sleep. And he's always happy to just hold them, too. See the exercise ball in the picture above that my mom's sitting on? Well, we learned early on that Naomi, then Emma, both liked to be bounced on the ball. So whenever the babies got fussy, my parents wrapped them up in a blanket and then bounced and bounced. And bounced.



And last Sunday, Melanie and the kids came over for dinner and it was the first time in a long time that all the grandkids in the family--all 8 of them--were together with my parents at the same time. Nicole, the oldest, is on her way to BYU Idaho today and in another few weeks, the rest of Puyol and Melanie's kids will be back in Shanghai. As we have gotten older and more spread out, it has become harder to get together, although we try to get together for family events whenever we can. We'll see almost everyone again for Naomi's blessing in August, so we're excited for that.

Anyway, I am grateful for my parents and for all that they do for us. The funny thing is that no matter how much they do, they always feel like they don't do enough. Maybe I don't show enough gratitude. One day, I got all annoyed with my mom because she didn't think I was eating enough and reminded me I needed to eat so I can take care of Naomi. For some reason, this made me mad and I sort of snapped at her. Later, when I went to apologize, she reminded me that as much as I love Nicholas, Sophia, and Naomi, she loves me as much because I am her Naomi. It sort of put things in perspective for me. I can only hope to do as much for my children and be as good to them as my parents have for me.