True Mama Love

Sometimes I get so caught up in doing things for my own children...showering them with my love, bending over backwards, marveling at their uniqueness...that I forget that my own Mama must still look at me like her baby.

This week I am busy planning a Jedi training academy party for my son's 6th birthday. It will be a party to live on in A's memory for decades to come (I hope). A party replete with homemade Jedi robes for each guest, light-up lightsabers (thank God for the internet and bulk sellers), Star Wars cake, Death Star Pinata...and a surprise appearance by none other than...Darth Vader himself. Okay, so it's really my dear old brother in a pretty sweet getup -- the authentic movie version costume with lights and breathing device. He gets really into this stuff, so who am I to say no?

So in the midst of all this work, I happened to email my mom for advice on how to make a Princess Leia cinnamon bun "do", as my son insists that we all wear costumes. I ran the gamut of ideas...bake some huge buns, shellac them, and glue them to a headband. Hmmmm...anything involving shellacking doesn't sound so fun. Roll up some rope and paint it? Braid a skein of yarn and roll it up? Meanwhile I found someone at Etsy who knitted a hysterical winter cap with the big old buns knitted on the side. I emailed it to my mom to ask if she could knit such a thing. Being a knitter, she could probably whip this up in her sleep, right? She informed me that it would entail knitting "in the round", which she was never fond of. She didn't think she could pull it off. Okay, no problem. (Although I didn't understand what a Shakespearean theatre had to do with knitting, but whatever.) My search continued.

Today dear, sweet, giving mommy emailed me with some surprise photos. Here is her message:

Okay, once I got Dad to stop laughing, he took these pictures for
me.....if they EVER get shown to anyone else besides you, (hubby), and
or the boys I will not do anything else ever again in the way of
"craft projects" for birthday parties. You may want to go with your
original plan of having a head band and braids....I'll bring this
"thing" but you may not want it. It's really hard to see the
"circles" on the side but believe me they're there. Ok, now
I'm gonna go back to my reading and try to forget I did
this :)

So of course I can't show you the photos, as it would break the sacred Mother/Daughter "let's not ever make each other look like an ass" bond. But suffice it to say that dear mother did indeed get her knitting needles a-flyin' to accomodate her only daughter's plea for help.

Now THAT, my friends, is True Mama Love.