At about 5 AM yesterday, I heard the bead curtain in Yaya’s room rustling. Child 1 is up, I thought. Then I heard the foot steps going to my son’s room. I really wanted to know how this was going to pan out, cause the night before my son went to bed at 2 AM and he hates waking up in the morning..and after 3 hours of sleep, the person who is trying to wake him up need to be well armoured to survive the flying kicks..But nothing happened..no drama and no kung fu.I heard one set of foot steps going to the kitchen and another going to child number three’s bedroom.

The next hour, I heard a lot of mumbled conversations from the kitchen. I imagined the mess I need to clean up. Then I heard someone opening the pergola door..”dear lord, there goes my flowers” I thought.

Truth be told, I also made a silent wish that my children won’t douse the sandwich they are making for me with tomato ketchup.  First thing in the morning, I can’t eat half a bottle of ketchup, but I can’t break their heart by not eating what they loving make..so I crossed all my fingers and wished fervently !

The hardest thing to do is to lie down in bed and pretend to sleep. I really wanted to read or at least play words with friends. But I didn’t want to spoil the surprise..And so I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep..Every now and then I could hear the youngest coming to check if I am sleeping and I closed my eyes really tight and hoped I will pass the inspection..

Eventually, the moment arrived and all three came to my bedroom and jumped on my bed and wished me Happy mother’s day. I got up from my deep sleep, with all the shock and surprise I could muster, fluffed my pillow and sat up on my bed and got ready to eat my breakfast in bed.

“Mom, I set the table” Yaya said

I felt bereft of the one thing I looked forward to each mother’s day..even though the sandwich is full of ketchup, it is the breakfast in bed i looked forward to the most. I am a creature of habit and I wanted my breakfast in bed.  With a heavy heart I got up from my bed thinking that how fast my babies grew..and how everything is changing..

My house is in the shape of an inverted L with my bedroom on one end and the dining hall on the other end, and as I walked to the dining hall, I passed by the kitchen, I was expecting to see flour on the floor, meassuring cups strewn every where, milk bottle kept opened etc..and I was suprised to see that my kitchen looked exactly as I left it the night before.. What is going on, I asked myself.

This is what I saw on the dining table.

My kids organized a high tea for me..Yaya baked the scones, my son made my favourite egg salad sandwich and baby made my favourite cucumber sandwich. They bought the cupcakes and lemon slices from coles and smuggled it home when I was away.

They used my fine china..the cycle like thing at the back of the photo is my mother’s day gift..it is a plant stand. The tea pot that is hiding behind the cake tray is what Yaya gave me two years ago. Flower vase on the right of the cake tray is filled with Chrysanthemum flowers from my garden ( plant was given to me last mother’s day and I haven’t killed it yet)

And to prove that I no longer can pout my lips and show a very sad face to get what I want because it is my special day, Yaya gave me this card.

She didn’t clean her room, but that is OK..I had the best mother’s day ever..