It's Becoming More and More Real...

Today, Tanner and I went and bought all of the school supplies on his list, along with a new backpack.

Yep. My first-born is officially ready for Kindergarten.

It's exciting and scary for me at the same time. I am glad he will be going to such a great environment and learning all sorts of new things and making new friends. I am excited to see his first art project he brings home from school and help him with his first homework assignment. I hope he thrives in school and learns to love it.

It's scary for me because I still see him as my "baby"...it's so hard for me to picture him finding his way to his class each day and making his way to the daycare bus for after-school care all without my help. It's also scary because I'm one of those moms who pays too much attention to the bad news out there about kidnappings and bullying. Both of which have haunted me in my nightmares these past few weeks (I'm a real mess!) It's so hard to let go and allow him to enter the world of self-sufficiency. Not imagining how he will get through each day without needing to hold my hand. All I can hope for is that I've raised a boy that will make smart decisions, have self-confidence and socialize well.

Goodness, I sound like I'm sending him off to college.

Ugh, don't even get me started.

Countdown to Kindergarten: 17 days...

Separation Anxiety

I always thought Tanner was a "Momma's Boy". And in his own rite, he really is. But I can't really remember him going through a real stage of separation anxiety. Every now and then, when he was around 2 or so, he would tell me he didn't want me to leave, but I don't remember him completely breaking down into tears as if his whole world just came crashing down as I exited the building.

Breckin, well, he's a completely different case. When he was even just two or so months old, he would scream bloody murder when someone else held him...even Jake sometimes! He would always be scanning the room for me...or just hearing the sound of my voice would cause him to wimper for me. There were times when we would walk into a friend's house and he would feel overwhelmed, cling to me and burst into tears. He's only recently started getting comfortable with his own grandparents...as far as letting me hand him to them (but this only works if I am sticking around, as opposed to dropping him off.)

Breckin definitely had the better deal as far as my time and attention in his early months. With Tanner, I was obligated to go back to work as soon as possible...taking him into his first daycare when he was 8 weeks old. It completely broke my heart. So when I was pregnant with Breckin, I decided that I would find a way to stay home with him as long as possible. Breckin got me full-time for his first 5 1/2 months, with the exception of cleaning jobs here and there - which only required an absence of 3 to 5 hours at most. So now that I am going to work 3 or 4 days a week...I have to drop him off at my neighbor's in-home daycare. And let me tell you - it is miserable. It's somewhat funny, yet heartbreaking at the same time...if that makes any sense. As I hold him and walk into her house, he grabs onto me a little tighter. He will make flirty faces at her and giggle (so I know it's not that he doesn't like her), but then the good ol' "pass off" comes and he grabs my shirt as tight as he can with his little fists and clenches his chubby little thighs harder around my waist while starting to wimper. I have to pry him off me as I hand him to her and he immediately breaks down into the most pathetic, heart-wrenching cry. This is why moms don't want to go to work...simply to avoid having to see this horrible scene...and worse, to know that it was she that caused it.

Every time I drop him off, it breaks my heart a little...and I just want to soothe him and say "OK, baby, Mommy is quitting her job today, I promise..."

Ugh. If only.

ZOKU...you've gotta try this!

My brother- and sister-in-law got Tanner an early Christmas present:
The ZOKU Quick Pop Maker

Being that it's summer, they wanted to give it to him early. So today we gave it our first try. I took some lowfat vanilla yogurt, a mixture of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries that I chopped up in the food processor and started layering them into the frozen unit (had to be in the freezer for at least 24 hours before using). In 7 minutes, we had frozen popsicles! Tanner loved being a part of making them...makes it so much more fun than just buying a box of them at the store.

I'm still a little novice as far as my decorating skills with them, but I'm going to learn...and hopefully my popsicles will start looking a little more like this:

What I like best about it is that I know exactly what is going into his popsicles...and I can make them super healthy with just some fresh fruit ingredients. I think popsicle-making will be our new mommy-son project on the weekends...how else are we to survive this heat?

Copycat Baby

Breckin is quite the little noisemaker. He is always making the cutest and funniest sounds. Here's a video of him copying daddy's noises:

One Month Away...

All of Tanner's khaki shorts and polo tees for his school uniform showed up via Fedex today.....

I don't think I'm going to handle this very well...

Mid-Summer Pic Share!

I finally had a chance to upload the pics from my camera that have been taken over the last month or so. I don't know about you, but this summer is just flying by for us...hopefully it is treating all of you well though. We have been keeping a very busy schedule (not always a good thing - because I could stand to just relax a little bit!) Of course we've been working as usual, family has been in town a couple times, then of course there's always play parks, the pool and the beach! Constantly on the go...that's what I do.

Anyway, here are some of my favorite pics taken recently:

Breckin and I ran (OK, I ran - he relaxed like a king) our first 5K together since the 5K we did Mother's Day weekend (Mom's Run 2011). Here are a few pics Jake took of us before we took off...

Here's some pics of my little man at the playpark...

And of course we had some more beach time...

And in recent news - Breckin started pulling himself up!

Thanks for checking out the pics! As always, I love comments! The next month will be full of a lot of great pics as Breckin will have his 1st birthday and Tanner will start Kindergarten! It's a big year for us this year...I'm definitely going to cry...A LOT.

For Shame

Confession: Until tonight (with the exception of a bridge walk and a 5K), I haven't worked out in like 2 or 3 weeks.

I'm ashamed to have a blog called Mommalicious because this kind of behavior is so the opposite of Mommalicious. In fact, you should stop reading my blog right now. Cancel your membership/fanship, I'm no good. I'm a disgrace.

However, if you should choose to read further, I'll gladly make excuses explain:

Motherhood, holidays, family in town and work have definitely gotten the best of me the last few weeks...so unfortunately working out fell on the backburner of things to do...and even when I did have the opportunity to, I chose not to instead. Cleaning house, kicking back with some wine, or napping (if I EVER found the opportunity) were things I chose over it. Bad Morgan.

Well, I'm done being bad. I was in kind of a rut. Mid-June, I left my job at the urgent care center...which I am not regretful for because the hours were just not working for my family or me anymore. But of course that meant a lot of my free time was spent applying to jobs and interviewing. And I had to pick up a lot of extra cleaning jobs in the meantime. Not to mention, my gym membership was through my job at the urgent care center so of course that got cancelled. But tomorrow I'm taking advantage of my day off and signing back up! Now that I'm working again, I can afford it. And I also seem to have a better organized schedule when I'm working as far as working out goes. I usually pencil it in early in the AM before work, or at lunch or before I head home at night.

Tonight I did a little at-home workout while playing with Breckin in his nursery. So I feel a little more energized and pumped about getting back in action with my workouts. I have not gone this long without really working out since I was pregnant and it's really been getting to me. It's just not who I am...I've always been motivated when it comes to fitness...so I just haven't felt like myself lately. I suppose it's normal for every one to lack motivation or get too busy for fitness from time to time. (Even the Mommalicious ones.) But of course, the first half of Mommalicious is Momma...so in reality, that's what comes first when you're truly Mommalicious. So maybe I'll stop being so hard on myself...stop looking back and just look forward and get my ass back into gear with no regrets.