Big Momma Day

For Mother's Day today I got one of my "First Time Evers":  I got breakfast in bed made and served by none other than our 6-year-old daughter, or "Little C" (see?  it just doesn't work).

Her daddy talked to her last night (he's traveling) and told her to do the J family traditional Breakfast In Bed, which I thought was amazing.  I got 2 slices of bread with Peanut Butter & Jelly and a glass of milk. 

She's just so cute.  She even heated the bread in the microwave because, according to her, "it was cold because it was in the refrigerator, Mommy". 

Here is the detailed story (and so very much my kind of story):  The bread she gave me was rice bread, which doesn't have either the consistency nor the flavor of the bread you would want with your PB&J.  The milk was soy milk, which I like but have susbtantial reason to believe that I am allergic to it.

I did down the hot bread with the hard edges and took a tiny sip of the milk ("Mommy, it's your favorite!!") and dwelled in the feeling.  She really truly is the best.  I pictured her tiny hands trying to grasp the big bottle of 8th Continent and her mouth twisting as she tried to pour the soy milk into the glass all the way to the top, just like I like it.  Then walking diligently to the microwave, after carefully separating the rice bread slices, taking notice not to heat the bread with the PB&J on it, but the bread alone... hitting the number "1" on the micro-oven, waiting patiently... I could continue forever, just dwelling, imagining...

When she reached my bedside she announced the event and then apologized for the tray replacement (a round cork hot-plate thingy), because the real tray was too high up.

Oh... the gift itself reached me by way of email.  It was a gift certificate for a new pair of my favorite shoes (Ferragamo's "Audrey").  But (to steal from American Express commercials), the truly "priceless" part was what my imagination gave to my mind:  A picture of my husband working overtime in front of his computer to produce a PowerPoint document weighing in at 2+ megabytes, featuring a photo of the kids, with a "value not to exceed $00.00" on the bottom (a mistake, I think!), and printing at the small size of 1/3 of a letterpage...  It made me fall in love all over again. 

TRULY, really, truly:   When someone gives you their time, their thought, their love in this way, the tangible gift itself becomes unimportant.  And nothing else, ever, can make you feel loved in the same way as this.  After all, time, love and thought themselves are things that one can't buy.  Or ever take back.