Celebrating Mother's Day

My edition #21

I've got a mom. You've got or had a mom and this weekend is the day we celebrate that momness! So let's look at some Momness stuff!

1. 82.5 million Estimated number of mothers of all ages in the United States.

2. 35,000 Number of births in 2002 attended by physicians, midwives or others that do not occur in hospitals.

3. Labor... wooo isn't it fun? On average there is half a centimeter an hour of cervical dilation. Nearly twice as long as the Friedman Curve. Source

4. August is the most popular month to have a baby, with 359,000 births taking place that month in 2002. July, with 358,000, was just a shade behind. Or should we just say that November/December/January are um.... months preferred for fun and games? Really, what are you supposed to do when it's freezing outside?

5. Old Wives Tale: Do you have acne? Some believe that getting acne during your pregnancy indicates you're carrying a girl. Maybe the acne is caused by twice the amount of female hormones?

6. "If you've never been hated by your child, you've never been a parent." -- Bette Davis

7. Ancient Greeks celebrated a holiday in honor of Rhea, the mother of the gods.

8. "Salary.com determined that a stay-at-home mother might be paid as much as $134,121 for her contributions as a housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, janitor and CEO." - Source

9. A saying that my mother used to always say, and pretty much drive me crazy when she did, "Well, life is full of pit holes and this is just one of them."

10. A silly saying that my grandmother had, "Have you ever seen an elephant with red eyes in a cherry orchard?" And when you would sigh and say no... she'd say, "well, see how well they hide."

11. A favorite memory I have of my mother. She hates the smurfs. She always has. I remember several mornings I would see the smurfs on TV. I'd turn up the volume really loud and then sit by the couch and giggle. She'd coming storming out of bed to turn off the tv. Yeah, she'd yell at me... but it was so funny. Well, one morning I woke her up with the La La La's and then went on my merry way to school. I came home from school to find a piece of cardboard on the table. There were tiny holes in it and where there was a hole there was metallic blue paint splatter. On the table were tiny pieces of blue and white plastic. My mother had taken my smurf pez dispenser, wired it to the piece of cardboard, taken a bb gun and then shot it to pieces....

12. "Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother." -- Lin Yutang

13. There are moments when I think that I'm not a good mother... I think we all have them. I know my mother had them. Mothering is not easy, and it's not always fun - but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I love my mom, very much. I can appreciate her now, in ways I never could as a child. I wish you a very happy mother's day.