My Mother, and Being a Mother

Mom with Edith when she was 1 month old

Edith gave me a pretty good gift for Mother's Day: A three-hour nap in her stroller while Paul and I ate a nice lunch at one of my favorite neighborhood burger joints, followed by a piece of Brooklyn Blackout Cake at Little Cupcake.

But the best gift a new mother could get, I got almost 31 years ago: A great mother myself. Of course I never realized for all of those years that Mom was teaching me how to be a mom. Maybe she didn't realize it herself.

Long before Paul and I decided to have a kid, I wasn't sure how I would be as a mother. I'm impatient and exacting; I just want things my way. I'm still not sure how I'll be. After all, the proof is in the pudding, and Miss Pudding isn't even six months old yet.

But I'm trying my best, and I hope Edith feels even half as secure as I did as a kid that her mom always has her best interests at heart, even if we don't always see eye to eye.

So as my first Mother's Day has come to a close and I contemplate the type of mother I want to be, I want to thank my own mother for being the perfect example. I have big shoes to fill. I love you, Mom.