for tlo and her mama, whose party i missed today.*

If you saw me today, you may be asking yourself, "I wonder why she changed her clothes six times since this morning?" or, "What's up with that ridiculous bobby-pinned hairstyle?" Both would be fair questions. It has been the kind of day that could never have happened if I weren't someone's mother. The short version is that Claire has been very, very sick during the past 18 hours. We woke up in the night to a cry that I thought was for food but was actually more of a, "Mama, I'm covered in vomit, do you think you could do something about it?" Nate cleaned the crib. I cleaned the girl. Minutes later, I cleaned her again. I continued cleaning her (and myself) several times throughout the day. We visited the doctor. I cried when she dry-heaved. She smiled and waved as I cleaned her up. She has to be the most pleasant sick person I've ever been around.
The only thing left to say today is that there is a type of love that I hope each person who reads this gets to experience in your lifetime. The love where someone (for me, a miniature someone) can vomit all over your freshly clean self and you just don't mind. Your only concern is for her. That, friends, is love. Today, I got to both give and receive the motherlove as my mom spent her Saturday cleaning my girl's messes and my bathroom and telling me over and over what a lovely day she was having. The weird thing is, I know she meant it. The reason I know- I learned it from Claire.

*This picture has nothing to do with today's post. It was taken on Friday morning, the day before the vomit. The three of us went to the Pancake House, which was a tradition for us when we were a family of two. I love how Claire looks annoyed like she's about to say, "Dude, where's my pancakes?"