Birthday Dilemma

So during the period that I was absent from my blog, my son celebrated his 4th birthday.  Of course, on the other side of the scale, was the marketing summit that was being put on by my clients at work - a week long intensive of meetings, break out sessions, lunches, dinners etc.  What to do? Attend the dine-a-round dinner or skip out for the birthday celebration.  

I finally made peace with the fact that although the summit was conveniently located in my home city (this time), if it was in another city, birthday or not, I would have missed the festivities. Instead I focused on the reality that Prince did not know exactly which "day" of the week was his birthday -- so we sang happy birthday the night before then celebrated in fine style at his party the following Saturday.

Sometimes being a working mom means you will miss precious moments.  But increasingly, I am realizing that the key to my sanity is making choices that are practical with the understanding that I cannot be everywhere, all the time and I will never make everyone in my life happy.  So if my son is too young to realize that we celebrate his birthday on a day that isn't his birthday, then the world won't stop if I "miss" his birthday... especially if I make up for it by giving him personal neighborhood train rides at his party :-)

Time Flies

So this morning, Princess woke me at 6:00am ... I repeat ... Princess woke me at 6:00 am, with a smile, fully dressed and informed me that she already had her breakfast. "Breakfast!!!" My daughter's breakfast for the past eight years (with the exception of the odd guilt infused week) has consisted of a cup of chocolate milk -- thanks to (a) the article that informed me there is more energy packed into a cup of chocolate milk than Gatorade and (b) the fact that I decided to unpick the battle of rushing to make breakfast then fight with a child for 30 minutes after that about eating it, only to throw it all away at the 35th minute (minus two bites when it's time to rush out the door).

But I digress. My daughter's birthday present to me was yet another one of those sharp bends in the road of motherhood - that arrives without warning - and signals that we have again transitioned and there is now one less thing that I will be "doing" for my daughter. It's funny - encountering these moments helps me to take a deep breadth when I'm feeling overwhelmed by, for example, potty training with Prince. I try to keep reminding myself - before you know it, this will be behind you and the opportunity does not come back. So I try to enjoy the process of "mothering" a bit more - with each child. Even when the morning routine for the past few years meant I could either (a) not work out or (b) work out in the morning and feel like I've been going for five hours when I sit at my desk at 8:30. Coincidentally, my son's birthday present was sleeping through the night with no pull-ups and no accidents.

Time is indeed flying ... so today as I celebrate my birthday, I am thankful for the gift of another year of health, happiness, employment (not to be taken lightly these days) and a beautiful family. I am also reminded that each opportunity to "mother" is also a gift - one that is to be appreciated and enjoyed daily.

Today I will also embrace the fact that I missed the meeting at Princess' school last night that was supposed to wrap up the year of the diversity committee - did I mention I am the co-chair of that committee? But of course, I forgot for the following reasons: (i) my iphone is not synched with my work calendar; (ii) I left work early to take a high school friend who spent the weekend with us back to the airport - so the reminder did not pop up; (iii) there have been school activities almost every day last week and this week; (iv) my work calendar had a glitch yesterday that caused about 20 appointments to pop up all at the same time so I deleted them all; and (v) I was not paying attention to my calendar anyway as I was stressing over the fact that I had to leave work early again as I have to take a day off for Princess' field trip on Thursday and will miss Prince's end of year class party on Friday. So, I embrace this insanity today because in a few years, this is all going to be a distant memory so why taint it?