Killing This Mom Thing

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Today had some of those awful Mom lows (my sweet toddler woke up in destruction mode….) But despite those moments, I had some awesome moments where I was killing the Mom thing today. I not only had quality time with both my little boys, but we also exercised while doing it!

I’ve been working on giving my oldest some attention without any electronics (for either of us!) and getting some physical activity in to help him do better on the sleeping front.

And, I’ve been trying to give the newborn a bit more quality time instead of always relegating him to the bouncy chair to observe all our antics.

So first, we cleaned the living room up. When we bought our house I imagined us playing and living in the downstairs family room. The living room would be the room that we kept clean and nice for visitors.

But the boys would have none of that. I think it’s because upstairs is hardwood floors and the cars move much better there than on the carpet downstairs, but they always want to play upstairs. And since there isn’t a television in the living room, it’s easier to play instead of indulging in screen time…so the boys won. We play upstairs most of the time, and the living room is usually a disaster. It’s really amazing how fast you accumulate toys! Of course, besides the screen time downsizing, the other benefit is that it means the downstairs stays pretty clean. And since we’re constantly cleaning the upstairs for any company, the house stays fairly orderly! Win!

Anyway, after the living room was clean and vacuumed, we spread out a blanket for the baby on the floor to have some tummy time. With my first, we constantly poked and prodded him to keep him awake during tummy time and encourage him to lift and move his head. With a toddler around, I don’t have to do anything, he takes care of the poking and prodding! The baby was doing a great job with tummy time and not even protesting, and my oldest and I would cheer him on and tell him how talented he was.

Then we’d turn him over for a break on his back, and exercise.

Yep, exercise.

I’ve been slowly building up the number of push-ups I can do, trying to slowly get a bit more into shape. And the boys love it. (I think I look funny to them!) I’m easing into it, doing girly push-ups, and only about ten at a time, but I’m doing them. And my son assumes the position, and then proceeds to touch his head to the ground over and over, “doing” them with me. His adorable little head bends make him giggle and eventually, he abandons them to climb Mommy or tickle her. But it doesn’t matter, he’s an excellent workout buddy.

We would do a set and then turn baby back over to do another few minutes of tummy time, letting him get his head lifts in too.

And tonight, as I cuddled them both close and sang them to sleep, I reflected on our exercise time together and stored those treasured memories away in a safe place to keep forever.