Major Clan

So there are certain things that happen in your life where you realize you are, indeed, a mother. You also realize why no one actually tells you every detail of being a mother before you are one because then no one would ever do it!

When they are babies, they pee and poop on you way more than anyone ever told you they would. And they "spit up" on you too. I put spit up in quotation marks because that is really just a nice phrase for puking on you. You spend the first year of life with something constantly on your shirt or pants and you don't change your shirt or pants because they are just going to get dirty again. At one point during this stage, you look at yourself and think, "Wow...I'm really a mom."

Then they start potty training and now you find yourself cleaning poop out of panties and underwear, pants, socks, and the floor of wherever they were just standing. This stage is slightly easier because at least now they can say, "I love you, Mommy," which makes things a little easier to swallow. And again, you look at yourself and think, "Once again, I am a mom."

Once they are out of that stage, then anything else that you have to endure in this field will be centered around blood and/or broken bones. Not too bad. Don't get me wrong, there are many other things that go on in this stage that I don't have time to discuss here, but on the subject of gross bodily fluids that you have to clean up, it's not too bad.

Which brings me to my day today...Zoe came home from school yesterday with symptoms that are textbook UTI. Of course, she didn't really express how she was feeling to me until last night. So, this morning we headed to the doctor. I found myself squatting between her legs as she is sitting on the toilet, holding the cup for her to pee in. Lovely. We were there for about an hour and she never could pee on demand. (For the record, I don't understand this, because I have had four babies, so I could fill a cup at any point on any given day. But, I realize she is only 10 years old) So, the doctor gives us the plastic urine specimen cup and tells us to bring to back once she has been able to pee in it.

So, now here I sit at work with a urine sample on my desk and I just looked at myself and thought, "Wow...you are a mother."