Motherhood comes with its own set of superpowers

Moms are pretty incredible creatures.

I realized this once I got over the initial shock of having my first baby and found that I could do things I never dreamed before.

I can be up and energetic on two hours of sleep. I can care — I mean really, deeply care — about the color and consistency of poop.

I can pick out my baby's specific cry from across a crowded church.

So I was excited to see a book by Katherine Ellison titled "The Mommy Brain," which documents how mothers actually do have special mommy superpowers.

Moms, for example, are better at reading facial queues and are better equipped to feel empathy.

Mothers also get a brain boost to help them focus and complete complex tasks thanks to an infusion of estrogen following childbirth.

Perhaps this is why I have become a multitasking maniac since becoming a mother.

I can cook dinner while breast-feeding one daughter and completing a craft with the other. This is also why I have little patience when my husband gives me a helpless expression when I ask him to set the table and he says, "I can't. I'm holding the baby."

Are you serious?

Are we talking about the baby I've been holding all day while cleaning the house, making dinner, writing an article and scraping an unidentifiable substance off the coffee table?

Is THAT the baby we're talking about?

He usually finds a way to set the table while holding the baby. Way to go Super Dad.

So now that I know superhero mommy powers are legitimate, I've been thinking about some of my greatest gifts since I first laid eyes on that scrunched up face in the delivery room.

Making Stuff Up: Now that my daughter is 3 years old, she takes approximately four breaths every day. The rest of the time she is too busy asking a ridiculous string of questions about why the moon is out during the day, where babies come from and what that sign said that we just passed on the highway going 60 miles per hour.

Her questions are often loud and often embarrassing. such as when a repairman was at our house and she asked very loudly why he smelled so bad.

Faced with this litany of musings, I've become a master of making up stuff that I know isn't 100 percent accurate but sounds good enough to get by.