Musings of a Midwestern Mamaí

We had a great 4th of July this year surrounded by family, friends, sun, the pool, and fireworks!

My dad always used to call me Rip Van Winkle when I was younger because I LOVED to sleep in until 10 or 11 in the morning. (flash forward 15 years and sleeping in for me is 7 a.m.). I think I have passed this onto Declan.

He used to bounce out of bed in the morning chattering about his cars or trains, but in the recent weeks, Tony and I have been noticing that during the week, we have had to wake him up for daycare, and, he does NOT like to be woken up. It takes everything in me not to crawl under the covers with him, forget about going to work , and take a little snooze with him.  We usually rub his back for about 5-1o minutes before he finally comes out of his sleep coma.

I took a picture of him the other day just konked out. Our little Rip…

To say that Declan likes to look at pictures would be a major understatement.  Photo albums, pictures on the computer, hard copies, and our picture frames.  You name it.  However, his absolute favorite is to look at pictures from Tony or my phone. He asks about five times a day for ‘Mo pitures peese”, and as soon as one of us says, “ok”, he replies with a “yeah, ok” and promptly leads us to his bed.  It just cracks  us up.

He didn’t even give Tony time to get out of his work clothes before he demanded it the other night, so I took a cute pic of Daddy and Dec.

Declan and Aidan were the first little boys at our daycare. Only three months apart (Declan older than Aidan), they have turned out to be pretty good buddies. The both wore their Twins shirts the other day, so Melanie took a cute picture of them playing outside.

Hugs!

Declan LOVES to dance. Anyime we hear any sound that resembles a tune or beat, he bounces around and dances. We have a disco cd that he gets really into! I have a video of him dancing to “Car Wash” and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get it post it, but I will soon!

Shake your groove thing Declan!

We have started to acquire some fun dress-up clothes that Declan likes to whip out every once in a while.

He ran out of his room the other day squealing “I funny, I funny!” with his Halloween costume from last year. He thought it was just the funniest thing he had ever done.

What a cutie!

Tony was at class the other night and I was making dinner trying to multi-task while paying attention to the boiling pots and pans and catching up with Dec about how his day was at daycare.  As usual, Declan was chatty and kept saying  ‘mamas shoes, mamas shoes”.

Tony probably wont be too crazy about me putting these on the blog, but I thought he was so cute not to post.

 I turned around to see this…..

The funniest part…he seemed to walk better than I do in heels!

We love you Ton!

I know, I know. I have been a total stranger. For those of you who actually do keep reading my blog, thank you! Things have been a little crazy for us, but I promise I have pretty good excuses…

First and foremost, my hubs has accepted a new job. Whoohoo!

Second, he’s starting his MBA (the same day he starts work) Ha! Nothing like hitting the ground running, right?

Third, we have made the decision to drop, drop, and drop our home price to just sell the darn thing! For those of you who are asking, “Wasn’t your house already on the market?” Yes, yes it it…but, it hasn’t been priced even close to any of the other homes in our neighborhood because of so many short sales and foreclosures.  We’re back in the game houses…watch out! Kind of scary, but we’re investing in our future…investing in our future…investing in our future  (I have to keep telling myself that)

Lastly, so, remember back in January when I was talking about my New Year’s Resolution when I started p90X? I took my first stab at yoga, and found that I was awful at it, had no idea if I was doing any of the poses right, and was heavily reminded of how inflexible I was.  However, there was something about it that kept me at it.

About a month ago, I had a stressful day so I was doing yoga in my bedroom, but it was when I looked around me  and noticed that my laptop and blackberry sat open, emails buzzing and text messages vibrating, that I realized…this isn’t what yoga is supposed to like!  So, I decided to bite the bullet and wander outside the comfort of my DVDs to try a yoga class at a studio near my house.

All I have to say….

Pure bliss.

I am hooked, and if you are afraid of giving it a shot, I will tell you that it is so worth it.  I had heard all of the benefits of yoga before, but in all honesty, I never knew what all of the buzz was about. But for the small amount of time I have been going to yoga, I finally get it.  As a working, active, busy, and often stressed mother,  yoga has this strange way of hitting everything.  When you go to a class, it’s just you and your mat.  It’s not a competition, and it’s not to see who can hold their pose the longest.  It’s time away from work, away from home, and away from laptops and blackberries.  It’s empowering and pushes you to your limit.  It compliments other workouts and stretches every part of your body (I am secretly hoping it will make me just a tad taller… I know, in my dreams).  I love a good workout and some classes, I break a sweat more than I would have running five miles (Hot Yoga…enough said).  And…after six straight days of going to class…I can barely move. 

I know what you are thinking…yoga isn’t cheap. I agree, which is one reason that I waited until now to take classes from a studio.  But if you look around, you can find good promotions, especially if you are a new client.  Many of the studios I looked into offer a free week for new clients. 

One thing I will say is that you have to be open to it.  For example, the whole meditation and concentrating on your breathing thing was weird to me right away, but if you are open to being in the moment, I think you’ll really take something from it.  The neat thing is that there are so many different class styles, and even then, every instructor is different. 

And I always, always feel better after going.  Love it!

Have a GREAT Memorial weekend and I promise to do my best not to wait to long between posts.