Deep stretching with the baby yogi

First of all, thank you for your comments on yesterday’s post! I was totally schooled got some great tips on how to run on the cheap!

I do want to clarify two quick things about that post:

–I was not suggesting that every runner needs to buy top brands. I certainly don’t! Target and I are just as close as ever (and Old Navy has been making quite an impression on me lately, too). I don’t own a single thing from lululemon (despite how often I reference it). I just posted pictures of really nice stuff because, well, it looks nice.

–I guess I never actually said it, but I was talking about running as a sport/hobby, rather than running for fun/exercise. You can probably get by without a Garmin or a fuel belt on a quick jog around the neighborhood. (I mean, barely…)

Generic running picture

In addition to buying off-brands, there are plenty of other great ways you guys have found to save dough, like buying last year’s shoe models, finding running clothes at TJ Maxx, and keeping an eye out for race entries on Groupon. I still plan to do a follow-up post with all these ideas soon, so stayed tuned!

Moving on…

I finally did it: I took Mason to the drop-off daycare center at the gym yesterday.

I know. Who cares?

I feel like I’m the only mom on the planet who struggles with this, and there probably won’t be a single person who can relate to this post. But for me, this was an accomplishment.

At first, when Mason was really young, I’d think, “He’s just so little! I can easily go to the gym when Brent’s home.”

Then, we had a couple rocky experiences trying to leave him in the church nursery (he’d cry when we left, and be in a total panic by the time we picked him up), and I was less interested in the whole drop-off thing. I knew I should expose him to other kids and new places, but it was just so stressful on all of us that it was hard to justify going out of our way to do it.

Then, I got into home workouts and videos for awhile, and the gym lost its sparkle. (I also found out that our gym’s childcare wasn’t free.)

But yesterday, I finally sucked it up and went for it.

Post-gym—from what I can tell, not too irreparably traumatized.

I’d like to say it was a breeze and I should have done it months ago. But truthfully, it was about as hard as I anticipated. There were some tears (not mine, at least), and I did end up going in to calm him down at one point after I’d poked my head in to check on him. Watching your kid cry because he’s randomly been abandoned in a strange place is just a horrible, horrible feeling.

On a positive note: all that nervous energy made for a great workout! I couldn’t wait to blast through it and be done!

When we got home, I went into Guilty Mom mode and immediately let him watch Mickey Mouse with a sippy cup of (watered down) juice. Which ended up leading to the following—something I’ll just call “my sense of humor gets extra weird on Fridays.”

Bear with me.

Step 1: Find your focal point. Really zero in on it. (It’s ok if you drool a little.)

Step 2: Begin the stretch. If it feels good, insert your finger into your mouth.

Step 3: Breathe as you continue to ease into the stretch. Do not take your eyes off the focal point (ideally, an episode of Mickey, but a spot on the floor works for some).

Step 4: Stretch as far as you can, then stretch a little farther. This might look and feel a little weird, but that just means you’re doing it right. And whatever you do, DO NOT LOOK AWAY from your spot.

And there you have it. 4 steps to a nice, deep stretch. So easy a baby can do it.

(I just had to share that because it was pretty hilarious…he just slowly sank to the floor like this, eyes locked the whole time. Strange kid.)

Happy Friday!