Mother's Day? I'll Take Another Day

I can't say that Mother's Day has ever been much cause for celebration in my life and it seems that as my cohort grows older along with me, they too may unfortunately discover that it is a day tinged with sadness.

When Izzy was born I thought that Mother's Day might have a renaissance for me and turn into a sun-dappled, light-hearted occasion. The first Mother's Day with Izzy was sweet and most remarkable for the lovely antique locket with Izzy's birth picture that my dad presented to me. The following Mother's Day passed with little fanfare since Izzy was too young to recognize the day as such, though my friend D. and I, fantasized about having our boys get temporary tattoos with "I Love Mom" on their arms.
Last Mother's Day passed with some slight acknowledgement late in the day, by Izzy and his Papa, though nothing earth-shattering occurred.

This year was slightly different for Izzy was engaged, by his teachers, in preparing a Mother's Day craft. He came home on Friday with a bag and said, "You can open this in two days." He promptly went off to hide it somewhere.

At 6:30 a.m. today, Izzy arose and his greeting was, "Mama, go open your Mother's Day present." He then led me to its hiding spot in his room. Inside the black tissue paper (yes, he chose black - perhaps he knows something I don't?) I found a small cardboard flowerpot which he had decorated with flowers and I heartily thanked him for his efforts.

Next he informed me that HE wanted breakfast in bed. Hmmmm, isn't there something wrong with this picture? Whose day was it? I agreed to go down and get something and he said he only wanted cereal so I prepared a bowl for him and some yogurt with berries for myself. When I brought it all upstairs, he proceeded to eat his as well as half of mine. Not a bad start since I like breakfast in bed...

Then I had to figure out what was on the day's agenda. Izzy and I were on our own, since A. is out of the country for a spell. Izzy said he wanted to go into the city, as did I. I had already anticipated that the day's events should and must include good eats. I chose Tea and Sympathy, a comfortable old favorite. I had forgotten that they serve breakfast til 1:30 on Sunday and I wasn't in the mood for scrambled eggs since we had eaten them yesterday. Yet we were seated and it was lunchtime, so alas..we had eggs again, with British Bacon and Seven-Grain Toast, served along with some scones and clotted cream. Filling and delightful but redundant. At least I still had dinner to compensate.

Next we were off to Tompkins Square Park, thoughtfully situated near my favorite clothing store, Jill Anderson I decided I deserved a new dress. Again, my hopes were dashed when they didn't have what I had in mind..though they did have a lovely black spring coat I may just have to buy.

Once at the playground, a new one for us, I had my first, "I think I lost my child" scare. Turns out he was just watching some kids fill up their water toys at the fountain...PHEW.

Later on, we ran into my friend D. who was on her way home from the hair salon and decided to join her with her son O., for some gelato back in J.C., at Babo. There would surely be something there to perk me up. Izzy had an all chocolate cone and it was the first time we had tried the regular chocolate. I had always shied away from its extremely dark color but it turned out to be intensely rich and luscious. Lucky for me, I got to finish his cone!

Dinner was looming and I had no plan. It was getting late so I knew it was best to just choose a neighborhood place we both like, which turned out to be Confucius. So we spent Mother's Day dinner, surrounded by celebrating families, eating foods we had eaten many times before. The food was fine but nothing especially memorable.

The day turned out to be simply ordinary and would have been alright had it not been fraught with all manner of expectations, food and otherwise. So it seems to go, especially with holidays that the masses celebrate, since everyone is out either having, or pretending to have, a great time. Which is why in the end, it is sometimes best to celebrate life on other days instead.