Toe Taps & Tummy Time

It's 11 something am, because lately it's always 11 something am or pm in my world. My little Nature Boy and I have been up since 6:15am with two naps for him and one for me. We've eaten a quick breakfast of cold cereal and had coffee and a lactation cookie with dad. And now we're off to our library to do our spiritual practice which consist of a three-minute meditation, a reading of Lamentations 3, and either a 20-minute post-partum yoga video or a 10 minute virtual core restoration session with my trainer.

Today we've chosen the latter and I'm four minutes into static bear holds and toe taps when I look over and see that my little Nature Boy is ready to go from his back to his tummy. He's still in the phase of needing assistance, so I pause my workout and on hands and knees take his little hands in mine and sing the Roly Polly baby song - one of many in my repertoire to maintain sanity and infuse fun into otherwise mundane activities. And after three times of rocking side to side, he's fully rolled onto his belly. Back to toe taps for me.

I'm in my second repetition of the moves when my husband comes in to check on us and takes a video because baby is mimicking me and doing toe taps while on his belly. I'm thankful that I have on real clothes that aren't yet stained with spit up and that I at least took time to put my hair up in a nice headwrap.

A few minutes later, as I'm in the third and final repetition and breathing heavier, I look over just in time to see my little Nature Boy roll over all by himself. Immediately I sit up, not bothering to pause the workout, and start gushing over and praising him so hard that my husband comes back in the room to see what's going on. And the way this little one smiles so brightly when he sees both mama and dad smiling so brightly at him reminds me that these are the moments that count the most.

Of course there are still bills to be paid, chores to be done, and a business to run. But motherhood has taught me three major things:

Grace is a resource that must be steadily replenished;

He's developing fast so I have to make being present a priority; and

Work while he naps!