Ode to my MIL

That's "mother-in-law" if you don't know.

It came to my attention that in a recent post I mentioned looking forward to seeing my friends and family in America, and acknowledging that I was going to miss my friends here. I didn't, however, mention my family here, and that is a gross oversight.

As far as in-laws go, I came out pretty lucky. I am constantly hearing horror stories about in-laws, and mothers-in-law in particular. The problems that my friends mention are completely foreign to me. If Eli is wearing one of Maya's dresses (he loves Maya's dresses) and we're heading to Ann's house, she'll greet him with a genuine, "Don't you look beautiful. I love it!" When the kids ask if they can style her hair, there is no hesitation - out come the spray bottle and the comb and the elastic bands, and Bumma (as they call her, for "Big Mumma") is set up with an interesting hairstyle. She is always asking us when our next date is going to be, meaning when we're going to drop the kids off at her place and catch lunch and a movie; usually we'll return to a full, beautiful dinner (and we're sent home with the leftovers). She holds breastmilk in high esteem and if I were to tell her I was thinking of weaning Eli, she would reply, "Already?" She always respects our parenting wishes and treats our kids just like we do - like people. Regardless of how strange our parenting style might sometimes appear to outsiders, she would never make us feel like what we're doing is weird or silly, and she would always do what she thinks we would want her to do. That is incredibly valuable in any person in a child's life, but almost unheard of with mothers-in-law.

She would do absolutely anything for us, but even more important than that - she loves us, and it shows. Our kids absolutely adore her. So do we.

Thank you for being wonderful, Ann. I'm going to miss you heaps.