When I was getting ready to leave the hospital after my second child was born, my midwife came to me and said that I needed to be prepared for something ... she told me that never before and never again in my life would I be touched as much as I was about to be ... she warned me that my older child would want to touch me, my husband would want to touch me and of course the baby would need me to touch her ...
She apparently had never taken seven, nine and eleven year-olds on vacation ...
I love to cuddle with my kids ... I love to hold them ... and my goodness gracious was that trip to California (Disneyland, Sea World, Legoland) amazing ... but I have never, ever been
touched so much in my entire life ...
Every line that we waited in ... they hung on me ... clinging to me like velcro ... did it matter that it was 101 degrees out? ... no ... did it matter how many times I told them to stop? ... no ... and then the fighting ... "I want to sit with mommy" ... "you sat next to her last time" ... oooohhh emmmm geeee ... I don't know how I didn't strangle them ... just kidding ... mostly ....
My mom was with us ... but through the experiences of the last couple years my mom has kind of left a bad taste in their mouths ... they just don't get excited to spend time with her ... or do things with her ... none of them fought over sitting with her ... or with each other ... I felt bad for my oldest ... she was the first to concede usually ... taking the mature, grown up route ... I tried diplomatic answers ... from taking turns to flipping coins ... no matter what I did it resulted in protest from at least one of them ...
When we got back ... I actually told the lemon man he couldn't touch me for a couple days ... well, he did touch me ... but he mostly respected that ... I just needed space ... I am so grateful that my kids love me so much ... and I do love to snuggle them ... but my goodness ... personal space is not something to take for granted ...
