Tuesday 31 August 2010

Mum's the word!

Well, it may seem remarkably amiss of me not to have blogged much about the beautiful fruit of our earnest endeavours since his arrival. In this regard I have had no choice but to defer to E.’s Supermum. Herself! The One and Only! Il mio unico e solo! (Hey don’t ask me, don’t know where that sudden burst of Italian came from).

In her own inimitable style she is keeping an online diary chronicling her ‘adventures’ with our Wibbly Wobbly Wonder (well, maybe not so wobbly anymore on the eve of his half year ‘birthday’).

Of course I don’t need to read Kaya to know how absolutely amazing and altruistic she’s been since March 7th. I see that first hand every single day. In fact, I do her a great disservice because that should actually be ‘ever since she discovered she was with child’ all those heady 450 days ago.

She did everything by the book and then some. Yoga, extra healthy diet (extremely challenging when you live with me); no occasional glass of red wine (E. will be told in no uncertain terms that mummy ‘sacrificed’ to keep his 10 toes and 10 fingers); pre-natal classes (all 7 of them, with me in tow) and of course the expecting mother’s bible, “What to Expect when Expecting”. You name it she did it!

Anyway, we watched Uma Thurman’s Motherhood the other day. When I say ‘we watched’ I mean she watched it first and then I watched it 24 hours later, the moral of the story being that BE (Before Ethan) we would curl up on the sofa and compromise on Jennifer Aniston and some fit dude romcom their way to another fat paycheck. Now ABE (After Birth of Ethan) she watches what she can during the day and I watch what I can in the evening and we compare notes.

Anyway back to Uma. Despite being mercilessly panned by critics and punters alike and being an unmitigated box office dud, we both agreed that it was a pleasant enough entertainment (which probably means we would be utterly hopeless as film critics). More importantly however, it highlighted the ludicrous moral judgments that society makes on mothers every single day without appreciating their tremendous role.

More pertinently for me though, the film reminded me of how easily and conveniently dads, more often than not, overlook the selfless and sometimes unsupported multitasking roles and tasks that mothers undertake daily.

We, the plonkers that we can be sometimes,  revel in the misguided notion that well, She seems has everything under control judging by how ‘easily’ she is juggling all and sundry. Bring on the Champions League and American Football then!

All I can say Honey is that I more than appreciate and marvel at everything that you are doing and lean on me when you need to or even just want to! Pull me back from the brink when I’m that insensitive and inconsiderate oaf that you do not recall being present at our wedding.

And I’m sorry for all the times I’ve left you to carry the load on your own and I have not been aware of your needs.

You are a wonderful and amazing mum and I'm sure in his own time (when he start sto talk I suppose) E. will let you know how much he loves you and appreciate all you're doing for him.

Oh and darling, keep that excellent blog going I reckon it will be turned into a  international best-selling book, a movie starring Halle Berry as you and one of Will Smith's kids as E. and  it will of course fund our lavish retirement!

I love you. And THANKS!