Yesterday in England it was Mother's Day. At 7 am I woke to the sound of squealing babies entertaining themselves in their cot, as they do, and when I started to get up Angus told me to return to bed immediately. He left the room and came back with fresh coffee. Then he left and came back carrying two happy babies, with a bright pink card clutched in Nick's hands.

It was a Mother's Day card, signed (as it were) by both of the twins. Angus handed me a bottle to feed one of them with, and with a grin told me that since I was always giving them bottles they wanted to get one for me, so he handed me a bottle of champagne. He also handed me a small parcel and explained that he had nothing to do with it, but Melissa had handed it to him yesterday and told him to give it to me on Sunday, as she would be back in Sweden by then.

Inside was a card signed by both of the stepkids, with a hand-written message thanking me for the love I give them. And inside the parcel was a mirrored plaque with a poem on it, called "You're Like a Mum to Me".

I was in bits and completely, utterly touched.

It was a good day yesterday. Mother's Day was like every other day and every other Sunday, but it was my first Mother's Day and I will keep my cards forever. I can't believe I get to have a Mother's Day. I can't believe I have the relationship I do with Melissa and Jeff, which while occasionally rocky, it's come so far. I can't believe I have Angus, who deplores Mother's Day and Father's Day and yet went and helped the babies have momentos for me. And I can't believe I have two little beings that warm the inside of my heart.

Today is the 3rd of March. I have logged on to my work PC now, and turned off my Out of Office reply which has been in place for 5 months now. My much-ignored Blackberry is charging on the kitchen counter. I'm now going to have to start keeping track of where my mobile phone actually is again.

My boss is away today and as I've been away so long I haven't a clue what's going on, today will be a calm day. I'll update expired passwords and fulfill some admin things I need to do, then I'll walk away from the laptop, as I can't start work until I know what the hell I'm supposed to be working on. I don't know if I will be leading a project or just be a project goon on one already running. Once upon a time it would've stressed me no end to not know what project I would be working on. Now, I find I could care less.

How vast a life can change.

Tomorrow my boss is back to work, and I'm supposed to find out what project I'm doing. I have no idea what it will be. I have no idea if I will get thrown into work at high speed or if, like some projects, it will consist more of a dipping of the toe befoe immersing the whole ankle. Tomorrow is when work will properly begin, and to that end tomorrow is the babies' first day at nursery.

It's occupying a huge portion of my thinking time.

Tomorrow I find out what's in store for me.

Today I'm back to work.

And today Nick and Nora are 5 months old.

-H.

PS - a lovely box arrived from Amazon on Saturday with four absolutely fantastic books. There were sweet and funny comments with every book but Amazon didn't tell me who sent it, so I want to thank my anonymous benefactor from the bottom of my heart, it made my Saturday.

UPDATED - comments broken. Again.

UPDATED AGAIN - comments sorted!

Posted by: Everydaystranger at 07:28 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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