Wednesday 6 October 2010

Celebrating the Children in Your Life

I was reminded of a joke yesterday:

How did Mary Ingalls die?
She bled to death trying to read the cheese grater.

I didn't say it was a good joke.

For those of you who did not grow up loving Little House on the Prairie, rushing home from school on a Thursday to catch the 4pm start (no Sky planner then!), Mary Ingalls was the eldest daughter of Charles and Caroline Ingalls. She lost her sight, learnt to read using Braille and eventually opened a school for the blind. So, a stupid joke that surfaced from somewhere in my memory bank as I tried 'to read the cheese grater' concealed by a particularly bubbly sink full of  washing up (curse those Fairy suds)  - result: blood in the washing up water and one very sore fingertip!

One very sore fingertip - but not so sore as to stop me blogging.

Blogging is beginning to be something of an addiction. I need my daily fix of verbal outpouring. As a newcomer to the world of online journals, I have been having a look around at other people's blogs - people more established who seem to know what they are doing rather than stumbling around in the dark like I am. I have been amazed by the wealth of interesting, informative and witty examples, many from stay at home mums just like me. Plenty to aspire to.

There is also no shortage of blog giveaways and competitions, which are always a bit of fun. I found a competition on the blog Diary of a First Child which invites you to create something to celebrate the children in your life. This ought to be easy for me as I feel I spend nearly every moment celebrating the fact that my amazing children are in my life. However, translating this into something specific that can be posted online left me at a bit of a loss.

When I was in labour with baby number six, my husband captured some of the experience on video. It was a disappointment that the hospital policy was such that the final moments could not be recorded but we kept the camera rolling until we were asked to turn it off. I wasn't sure how I would feel about seeing myself in such an intimate and personal situation, reacting in a primal, instinctive way rather than the more usual measured responses of home video footage that I was used to. When I watched it back, it felt amazing - reliving the drama of the moment without the distraction of the pain and the uncertainty. It was also an opportunity to notice my husband's response to the event - a response that would otherwise have been lost in the sea of emotion that inevitably accompanies the miracle of childbirth. I have watched and re-watched the footage many times and each time it makes me smile how his normally deep voice becomes high pitched and unguarded. I love how my hand shakes as I reach down to touch my baby's soft little head - six births and that was the first time I'd ever done that. Six births had created a familiarity to the whole process but that familiarity did nothing to suppress the awe and wonder. It was breathtakingly magical.

I decided to edit together a few moments of my birth video to try and create 'something that celebrates the children in your life'. For me, nothing celebrates the children in your life better than evidence of that flood of love that springs from the deepest part of you when 'bump' becomes newborn - the flood of love that infuses every part of your being and NEVER diminishes.

I invite you to watch my video:





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