Mother's Day 2023
Maura awoke and looked at the clock. The digits displayed 7:00. She wondered where their children were. Normally Kate was at their bedroom door around 6 AM on special days. It was Mother's Day and there was no sign of the children yet.
Maura nudged Jane and heard, "Five more minutes please. I don't want to get up yet."
"Yes, love you can have five more minutes," Maura said as she snuggled tighter into Jane. Jane secured her hold on Maura and went back to sleep. She had no desire to get up yet. In preparation for a Mother's Day celebration, they had done a little bit of celebrating themselves until 2 AM and they were both exhausted. They knew they did not need to set an alarm as Kate was a great alarm.
The child couldn't sleep when she was excited and Kate had gone to bed early last night knowing that she would be up early, but yet she wasn't in their bedroom telling them 'Happy Mother's Day.' Maura was a little concerned. About 7:10 AM, Maura couldn't take it anymore she had to know what was going on. She got up out of bed slowly as to not wake Jane and put on a robe over her baby doll pajama set and when she went to open the door, there were their four children with two breakfast trays.
"Mommy!" Kate shouted, "You are supposed to be in bed still. I haven't woken you up yet."
"Oh my, let me get back in bed so you can wake me up." Maura stated with a huge smile as she walked quickly back to her bed. She slid under the covers and curled up to Jane. Jane stirred a little wondering what was going on but didn't open her eyes. Her nose twitched as she smelled her two favorite things: coffee and bacon. Jane opened her eyes and smiled at the sight of MJ and AJ holding breakfast trays.
Jane untwined herself from Maura and sat up in anticipation of a tray of food being set in front of her, Maura followed suite. MJ carefully sat the tray in her lap and gave his mama a kiss. Maura's tray was delivered by AJ and after he gave his mommy a kiss the four children said 'Happy Mother's Day.' Kate and Lilly handed them cards. Kate crawled up so that she was in between them on the bed. The other children sat on the bed and waited for their mothers to read their cards.
"This card is beautiful," Maura exclaimed as she first kissed Kate and then Lilly, MJ and AJ. "Thank you, I love the little drawings you each did."
Jane looked at all of them and said, "Yes, my card is beautiful as well and I also like the drawings. Did you all eat already?"
"Yes, mama, we ate downstairs." Kate said, "But I can help you eat your bacon."
"Are you crazy little one? I don't share my bacon." Jane stated as she broke off a small piece and handed it to Kate.
"Mama, I made you and mommy a gift, can I give it to you now, or wait until after you eat?"
Maura answered for them, "Let's wait until after we eat sweetie."
Kate put her head down a little and said, "Okay," and then leaned into Jane's side and waited for them to finish their breakfast. About ten minutes later the couple had consumed their blueberry pancakes, bacon and toast. When Kate saw that they were almost done she jumped off the bed and stepped outside to where she had left their gifts. With a huge smile she handed her mothers' their gifts.
Kate had been doing arts and crafts with her grandmothers and Constance had shown Kate how to make decoupage figures. She had made a police officer for Jane and a doctor for Maura. The figures were about six inches tall. Kate was so excited, "Nona helped me build the wire bodies and cut the strips of paper and make the glue. Grand-mére helped me shape the bodies and then paint them. Mama, I made yours wear a uniform because it was easier for me, sorry."
"No worries, little one, I love it. You did a great job on it." Jane told her youngest daughter as she gave her a big hug.
Maura then hugged Kate and said, "I love mine sweetie, I am going to put it on my desk at work. I love that you signed it on the bottom and put the year."
"Grand-mére said that is what artists do, they sign their work so I wanted to sign my work for you." Kate explained.
Lilly gave them her gift next. She presented her mothers with a little story book. The books were hand drawn and had pop-outs on several pages. Jane's book told the story of a police officer arresting a criminal and Maura's book told the story a baby girl being helped by a doctor and how the family included the doctor in a prayer for the baby girl's health. Maura had a tear coming down her face. She remembered that baby girl and how pleased she was that she was able to save her life. She didn't know that Lilly had remembered that story.
MJ and AJ decided that they wanted to do a joint project. For Jane, they made a diorama of a Star Wars scene depicting a fight between good and evil, of course the diorama had to have lightsabers. For Maura, they made a diorama of a college classroom depicting Maura reviewing items from the periodic chart.
Jane and Maura loved their gifts and made sure to thank and hug each of the children. MJ told them that they had to get out of bed and take their showers and get dressed as a car was coming to pick them up at 9 AM. MJ handed Maura a note from Kelly and Erica explaining how to dress for the day. The note said to wear your Boston Red Sox jerseys.
Maura pulled up the schedule on her phone and noticed that the game didn't start until 7:10 PM. She wondered why the car was picking them up at 9 AM. Kelly also put in the note, "Maura, don't worry about it, your attire is approved by Constance, she knows what we are doing today and she will be wearing her jersey also."
Maura just laughed when she read that part of the note. Jane looked at Maura and Maura handed her the note to read. Jane laughed when she read that Constance would be wearing her jersey. They had fought with Constance over wearing her jersey in the past. Constance had refused and was the only one in the family not wearing a jersey when they had attended their first game as a family. Ever since then Constance wears her jersey to games.
Kelly and Erica had worked with Angela and Constance to set up the perfect visit to the Museum of Science, one that would reflect Maura's likes so it would be a perfect visit for Mother's Day. The museum opened at 10 AM and they wanted to make sure that they had plenty of time at the museum.
At 9 AM they loaded into the car and then went to pick up Arthur, Constance and Angela. They were jammed packed in the stretched limo but Kelly had wanted everybody to ride together. Maura's eyes lit up when she saw their first destination. She absolutely loved the Museum of Science.
Kelly had downloaded all of the teacher handouts for the activities that they would be participating in today and had reviewed them with Angela and Constance. Arthur was there for the planning meeting but simply stated he would just go along with whatever the four women decided. Constance nodded and said to herself, 'smart man.'
At the Biogen Idec Foundation Exploration Hub, Kelly had arranged for the lab to present the mystery skeleton presentation. Kelly wanted to do the animal heart and lung dissection but Constance put her foot down and said Kate was too young for that. Although Constance wouldn't mind seeing the presentation and seeing how you dissect a heart and lung. She knew that her daughter had to do that as part of her job and was curious, but with Kate only being four years old she didn't think this was the right time for that type of presentation and hands on activity. They would stick to the mystery skeleton presentation for this year.
The women and children were having a blast looking at all the exhibits and the presentation. Jane enjoyed it but it was Maura's thing and she hung back with Arthur, who also was enjoying the events but he liked watching his daughter interact with the children and the exhibits. The exhibits changed every so often and that is why Maura never got tired of the museum. She loved taking the children to see the new exhibits. Maura was in her element and Jane and Arthur were fascinated watching Maura have fun.
It was going to be a long day for the children, a fun day but very long. After the presentation they took a break for lunch. Jane could see that Kate was getting tired. Kate fell asleep on Jane's lap during lunch. As they concluded lunch and continued on for more exhibits, Jane arranged Kate so that her head was on her shoulder and she carried her around. She stirred a few times and after about an hour she was awake and ready to join in the festivities again.
She grabbed Jane's face in her hands and gave her a kiss on the lips and then asked to be put down. Jane didn't think she would ever get use to Kate kissing her on the lips like that. She was the only child of the four that did that and Jane could only figure that because Maura did that, Kate was mimicking Maura.
A few hours later when they finished at the museum they loaded back into the stretched limo and headed to a restaurant near Fenway. Jane and Maura had figured out a while ago that the day was split into two, morning for Maura type activities and evening for Jane type activities. The children enjoying both types of activities.
Kate and Lilly both took a short nap after dinner and were awake by the time of the opening pitch for the Red Sox's game at 7:10 PM. The Red Sox played the St. Louis Cardinals. They had lost the two prior games on Friday and Saturday and were hoping to win this one. Luck was not on their side. The Cardinals scored nine with the Red Sox's only scoring one. Although they lost the game, they still enjoyed it and of course they enjoyed the family time.
Constance was loving sharing these holidays with Maura and so happy that Maura had forgiven her for not giving her these type of memories growing up. At dinner, the children had presented Constance and Angela with their own homemade Mother's Day cards as well, they let Jane and Maura sign the cards. Kelly and Erica had helped the children make the cards for Constance and Angela as they didn't want them to know that the children were making cards for them.
On the way home, all of the children had fallen asleep. The adults were all talking and Kelly told Maura that she wanted to go back to the museum and see the heart and lung dissection exhibit. Arthur volunteered to watch the children so that any of the adults that wanted to go could go. He didn't care to see it, he would rather play with his grandchildren. Next to Maura, they were the brightest gifts in his life.
Earlier in the day Arthur had presented his own handmade card to Constance and thanked her for agreeing to adopt Maura all those years ago. They may not have been the best parents but they were making up for it and they were so happy to have Maura in their lives. She has brought them such love and enjoyment. After they dropped off Arthur, Constance and Angela, Jane couldn't help but telling the driver, "Home James." The driver just smiled, he had heard that line so many times in his career.
When Jane and Maura finally were able to go to bed, Jane reached over and opened her nightstand drawer and pulled out a little box and handed it to Maura, "Maur, Happy Mother's Day."
Maura was surprised they had agreed no more gifts. She opened the box and found a beautiful charm bracelet with charms with the birthstones of their children as well as a tortoise and dog to represent their first children, Bass and Jo Friday.
Maura had also gotten Jane a gift. She handed Jane an envelope. Jane opened the envelope and found a beautiful card and an itinerary for a trip to Italy for later that summer. The trip would be for three weeks and allowed time for them to spend time with Arianna and Mario and the rest of the family that lived in Italy. Jane was excited she loved visiting Italy and spending time with the family that resided there. After a few minutes of talking and kissing they snuggled into bed. It was a very long day and they were exhausted.