To Be A Mom Is To ….

• Hold your newborn infant in your arms, wondering "what now" and somehow knowing the answer.
• Change beds, wash dishes, match socks, scrub Crayola masterpieces off the wall, step on Legos in the middle of the night, and mop sticky Kool-aid off the floor.
• Hold a little one's hand when crossing the street; wave goodbye when the time is right
• Unwrap handmade Christmas ornaments and hang them on the tree even when your children have children of their own.
• Keep plaster of Paris hand prints and bronzed baby shoes on your dresser.
• Find a lock of auburn hair, a tarnished silver rattle, a paper doily Valentine, track medals, a Letterman's jacket, a graduation announcement, a tattered blanket, a dried out corsage, old report cards, and an envelope full of baby teeth at the bottom of the cedar chest.
• Wait …  for labor to begin, for the doctor to show up, for the school bus, for a fever to break, for the swelling to go down, for the rash to go away, for for riding lessons to be over, for the mile relay to begin, for college acceptance letters, to hear "I'm home mom" before you can go to sleep.
• Sing along with Peter Paul and Mary, John Denver, and Jimmy Buffet.
• Be the first one to say Happy Birthday.
• Say the things you swore you would never say and do the things you swore you would never do.
• Learn to say I'm sorry.
• Fantasize about taking long interupted naps on a tropical island where no children are allowed.
• Hear "Mom, she's touching me," "I get the front seat,""I think I'm going to throw up," and "It's a Small World" one too many times.
• Bake gingerbread men and birthday cakes, roast turkeys, burn pork chops, and say, "who wants pizza?"
• Make Halloween costumes, blanket forts, and snow angels
• Have Little Debbies, Chex mix and Clam Dip on hand when your grown children visit.
• Drive the car pool, fold newspapers for the paper route, help with homework, and stay up late until a term paper is finished.Sit in the backseat when your son is car sick and, for no good reason you can think of, get on something called "Bullet."
• Read good night stories, spend time in the library,  and share a love of books.
• Attend parent teacher conferences, school carnivals, soccer games,  graduation ceremonies, weddings, and funerals.
• See things you've never seen before …  the look on your child's face on Christmas morning, sunset at the Grand Canyon, fields of daffodils, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, the inside of Juvenile Court, a horse being born, your son feeding a day old bird with an eye-dropper.
• See things you never want to see again … underneath your child's bed, your son's face after flying over the handlebars of his bike, the inside of Juvenile Court, your daughter's world fall apart.
• Blow noses, dry tears, kiss boo boos, rub backs and brush hair.
• Fix broken toys but acknowledge wrecked cars, twisted ankles, broken promises, and shattered hearts are out of your realm of expertise.
• Stand by during vaccinations, ear infections, oral surgery, and root canals.
• Neatly record the life events of your first child's life in photograph albums and baby books; toss memorabilia for all subsequent children in a box you intend to get to someday, but probably never will.
• Feel joy like no other, laughing til your sides hurt and tears roll down your cheeks.
• Feel sorrow like no other and to hear the sound of your heart break.
• Feel on top of the world except when your child is hurt, sick, rude, or doesn't come home on time.

Being a mom is a lot like winning the lottery, you have to pay some taxes, but you've got a lifetime of plenty ahead of you.