THE ONE

Sometimes you just realize that you have met the ONE.  NO, not the really hot guy at the Starbucks.  I remember a few years ago that there was a mother complaining that her child was the one who was the ONE …..  And after she regaled us with her child’s many “adventures,” I was so proud that I didn’t have a child who was the ONE.   Of course, that was before I brought home the bundle of joy that is my second child.   Here is a true event that occurred with him BEFORE he was eighteen months old…

It was the witching hour…you know the hour that you have to fix dinner or the children will explode.  Well, I had the fly swatter and I missed.  Darn.  Someone else didn’t miss.  His small aim made it straight through my picture window, shattering a pane of glass into many dagger size pieces of glass.  Quick pickup baby and usher him to his booster seat.  No blood.  Great, now for a clean-up and repair.  Not really my thing, that is usually the husband’s department.  Well, after 20 minutes, a screaming toddler, some tape and some plastic garbage bags, the window is “fixed.”  Now to serve the dinner that was nearly burned in the midst of  the chaos.  Fortunately the children are eating and enjoying it for all of 3 minutes.  I have 3 sips of my glass of wine, when aforementioned toddler throws the remainder of his dinner on the floor.  Quickly, I run to get paper towels to cleanup. As I return, charming toddler with the sensitive gag reflex, gags on the last bite of his dinner and throws up all over himself.  Return to the kitchen for more paper towels, and strip off the boy’s t-shirt and stained diaper.  As I turn to see naked toddler, he is peeing on the floor.

Ahh, memories…because that was only a preview of his year as a two year old.  He is the ONE  who…

1.Can throw 20 minute tantrums

2. Can toss toys that cause other children injuries that result in ER visits

3. Can pitch his dinner 30 feet in the air

4. Can jump on an 8 year old hard enough to knock the air out of him

5. Can punch hard enough to make a 40 year old man wince

6. Can turn a container of Jello into a dancing surface that covers the entire kitchen

However, he is also the ONE…

1. Who needs his mother the most

2. Who challenges me to be creative

3. Who asks me to love him without reserve

4. Who even in his worst moments tells me, “I love you, too, mommy.  You’re pretty.”

Hello world!

This is my very first blog.  I start it with much trepidation.  Why the title Scarlett Mother?  Oh, for so many literary reasons.  As a mother to 2 young children, I do feel like Hester in the Scarlet Letter. At many points in the day, I am wearing something on my shirt that screams, “Yes, I am a mommy,” whether that might be green child snot or a Lightning McQueen sticker.  I remember as a teenager looking at women who barely had done their hair and were wearing clothes from the last decade, thinking, “Aw, gawd, I hope that I don’t end up like that.”  Well, here  I am, and I do look like that.

If you are reading this and know me well, you know that I live in a moderate size Southern city.   As a college student, I adored Scarlett O’Hara and Gone with the Wind.  Really, Scarlett O’Hara was a modern mother with six children, various husbands, prosperous businesses and resourceful enough to   whip up a dress out of curtains.  However selfish she may have seemed, she put her family foremost.  And even on the worst days, she could  remember that tomorrow is another day.

I hope that in writing this I can give myself and a few others a few poignant thoughts, a laugh, and a firm reminder that tomorrow really is another day.

And after reading them you may even say to yourself, Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.