While They Are Sleeping

Ayden had another great night last night! Lately, once I get my boys tucked into bed, I've been having some much needed "me" time. Since Ayden's not a very consistent napper, I don't have any guaranteed down time during the day. He always takes two naps but they range anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour and a half depending on the day. Sometimes the morning nap is long and the afternoon short or vice versa. My point is that I can't plan to do xyz "during nap time" because your guess is as good as mine about whether I'll even have time to start a task. I am okay with this because Ayden is usually a happy camper so he is obviously getting the rest he needs when he needs it. He was actually a fussier baby back when I was attempting sleep training Baby Whisperer style but I digress. Lately I have been getting up after the boys are asleep to surf Pinterest or paint my nails. It's not much, only 20-30 minutes or so, but it is enough! I by nature am a solitary creature. I have always been more of a people watcher than socialite and I am okay with that. I hadn't realized how much I had been craving predictable alone time until I started making it happen.

My evening workouts (Tuesday/Thursday TurboKick) have been falling through lately for various reasons and I've been missing that time for myself too so I tried a morning class today. Ayden woke up at 7:15 (on his own! I really need to remember to trust in the natural flow of things...) so I decided to go to the 9:30am Hip Hop Hustle class and LOVED it! It was at the same place so the class was still just $5, child care only $2, and Ayden was the only child! He played one on one with a very nice gal named Stacey while I got to enjoy some hip hop, which I haven't done since I was on the pom squad in college. I had a blast and Ayden did great! When class was over, I went in to get him and he crawled over with a big smile on his face and climbed into my lap. All the toys that I brought for him were spread out all over the floor and when I set him down to clean them up, that is when he started crying. It was like he was saying, "Okay mom, it was fun while it lasted but I'm not doing it again!".

Class was over at 10:30 and our weekly story time was at 11 so we went straight to the bookstore. Ayden fell asleep on the way there (when he wakes at 7:30, story time and nap time always collide) and didn't wake up until there were only two songs left. My sister and her kids were there, and I figure he'd wake at some point before it was over, so we just hung around while he snoozed in his carseat.

The rest of the day was spent following my sister around town while she purchased party supplies. Our niece turned one on the 25th and her party is on Sunday. I also went to Kohls because Ayden was in desperate need for some pants that fit and they have a brand called Jumping Beans that fits him perfectly. It is a line of mix and match separated and each piece is only $5.99.  Along with my consignment store finds, he should be set Fall wardrobe wise until my sister gets around to lending us our nephews 6-9 month bin. Then we'll have too many clothes!

Ayden fell asleep around 8:00 and we're hoping for another great night! I think for my me time tonight I'm going to watch a few YouTube videos while I make a photo album for Ayden. He has had a Sassy photo album since before he was born. He used to look at the high contrast pictures that are behind the sleeves but now he's more than ready to have some real pictures in it. I printed a family picture from our vacation, pictures of both sets of grandparents and pictures of his aunts, uncles, cousins and our closest friends. All of his most important people all in one place! It's been on my to do list for a while, but projects like that, though easy to complete alone, are darn near impossible to work on with a busy baby crawling about. It'll be so nice to get it done. I can't wait to see him choose it from his book shelf just like all of his other favorite books!

~Sarah