"Mommy"

How can one word elicit such different feelings??

Yesterday, the boys pulled up after being gone for the weekend...

"M O M M Y!!!!!!"

or

"I love you mommy!" or as Henry says it, "luv ouh mommy!"

It doesn't get any better than this. There is pure pleasure in the sound of it. This is my name to them...my Davis, my Henry and my Wyatt.

Then, you also get...

"mommy...I need this." "mommy, he hurt me." "mommy, mommy, mommy" and the versions of it repeat over and over often times from both of them at once.

Same word, same meaning, but sometimes you wish for once they would say "daddy." (The irony being that when they do want Daddy, you long for them to want you again!) It is at times a difficult business to be in...the business of "mommy." The days when the demands are many, it seems the patience depletes oh so quickly. I have to stop and remember what my business is about. Three precious boys need at times for me to simply respond, "I love you too" and at other times to change a diaper, fetch a snack, kiss a wound or referee a fight. So maybe it is not different feelings after all. But it is so much more than just a word.