A Mother's Sacrifice

The magical child hood. But magic never stays long

True to my word, I worked over time as a waitress in the cafe over the street from my apartment. I thank my lucky stars that I had somewhere to live and didn’t have to worry about that. By the time my little angel was born I had enough money to support him and myself. I named my baby Andrew. He was so beautiful and looked exactly like his father. But I’m going to make sure that this is the only similarity that my baby will have with his heartless father. My baby will grow up to be the kindest man in the world. And from the very first day of his birth my sacrifices started. But I didn’t regret them for a second. Not even when they turned against me. At least my baby boy was happy.

Once the doctors told me that I’m having a boy I turned the storage room into a nursery. I bought baby blue paint and painted the nursery myself. I bought him the cutest little outfits in the baby shops I went in. I filled the room with teddies and fluff toys for him. I got him a cute cot and a baby mobile with a sweet melody to help him go into a sweet deep sleep with happy dreams. My baby boy was born at last after waiting long for him. The instant I laid eyes on him my heart filled with so much love for him. My world started revolving around him. I took him everywhere with me. I didn’t want him out of my arms for a moment. As long as he was within my eye sight I was certain my life was complete. Even the pain his father put me through seemed so insignificant beside the happiness I felt around baby Andrew.

Baby Andrew started walking early, only 11 months. My clever baby boy did everything early. I didn’t give him time to crawl seeing how I always carry him around but one day I was giving an order and had left him playing with his toys on the ground nearby and suddenly he was up and coming towards me with a big grin on his cute chubby face. I gave out a happy squeal and scooped him up in my arms twirling him around and giggling with him as my co-workers cheered. My baby boy was growing up fast. The first time he said "mommie" was when he was 9 months old. I was sleeping with him in my arms as usual and he woke up and started tapping on my cheek repeating "mommie mommie mommie" over and over in his adorable baby voice. I taped it for him. Those and the day he was born were absolutely the best days in my life. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said I didn’t know what love is before my little man was born.

Baby Andrew was growing up too fast for me but he was a happy baby so I was happy. The sight of him running around the house with his toys blabbling and squealing and giggling gave my heart a reason to be proud. I loved showing him off. I took him everywhere with me and he mingled with crowds of all ages. I wanted the world to see my adorable baby boy. He took everyone's heart with him with his adorable baby talk. I made sure he rarely cried. He had no reason to. I kept him happy all the time and I gave him everything he wanted even though I had to work extra shifts sometimes to bring him the toys he wanted. But my baby boy deserved to be spoiled. After all I had to make it up to him that he didn’t have a daddy.

I put my baby boy in the nursery when he was 3. He was so smart and he deserved the best of education. At first he was scared to be away from me and I was even more scared of leaving him there. How will my baby boy get along without me? But he calmed my fear quickly when I found that he made a lot of friends there and liked the nursery. He started looking forward to going there every morning and as much as that eased my worry I was a little sad that my baby was making his way into the world without me even if only for several hours in the day. I wanted my baby in my arms forever but I couldn’t be selfish when it came to my baby boy I had to do what was the best for him.

 I made sure I’m the one to take and pick up my son from the nursery everyday so he wouldn’t feel left out. Seeing him playing around with the other little kids filled my heart with pride. My baby was smart and understood everything his teacher said and he was social and managed to befriend everyone: babies, teachers, and the caretakers. I knew that he will make a great man one day. But then the day I was wishing I’d avoid came. My baby came with the question that I dreaded. "Mommie why do you only have one eye?"

 I avoided my baby's question with a "baby look what mommie got you". Instantly he was distracted with the chocolate I got him but I knew that this isn’t the end of this topic. I don’t want my baby to know what happened to my second eye. I knew he would be happier not knowing. I don’t want my baby to live with that. That night he was sleeping in my arms and his littler finger started to trace the scar where my second eye was. "Mommie did you have an eye there like everyone?" "Yes baby I did, I had an eye just like yours." "What happened to it mommie? Where did it go?" "It just went away baby so you have to care very well for yours." "Ok mommie" he said with a yawn. I sang my baby to sleep with a heavy heart that night.