Dance Party

The Baby and I had a dance party last night. She LOVED dancing with mommy.......for about 1 song. The rest of the time it was me dancing in front of her while she tried desperately to turn the volume up and play with the knobs on the receiver. She would occasionally shake her little booty to the beat when she felt the need to, which I think is the most adorable thing ever of course! Mean while, the dog was running around dropping his toy at my feet thinking that it was play time since I was jumping around. The best part about our fabulous dance party is that we were all in our PJ's! I think that if you're going to have a dance party that is the only outfit to wear. Our play list for the evening included 2 Cd's...Michael Jackson History and Tower of Power Greatest Hits. By the time Tower of Power was loaded, The Baby was rubbing her eyes and getting tired, so we only dance to a couple of songs and left the CD on for background music during her bath.

I felt so incredibly good after dancing with my loves that I think I will make it a weekly thing, if not more. I want The Baby to see that I can enjoy myself and unwind in ways other than watching TV or eating. We have a very limited time together after dinner and before bed and I want to make the most of it. I used to have her hang out with me in the kitchen while I cleaned up our mess from dinner, but lately I've decided to leave the clean up for after she goes to bed.

Being a full-time working, commuting mom means that I don't have much time with the loves of my life and I want to do my best to optimize the time we do have together. Now that The Baby is getting older and has a new sitter throughout the day I've realized that I need to really focus on playing with her and working on teaching her things. I'm pretty sure her new sitter doesn't take the time to teach things like colors and shapes and almost certain he doesn't read to her. She is a little sponge these days and repeating more and more things (or at least trying to) and I want to make sure she's getting the right influence. I don't want her to grow up thinking that mommies only cook, clean and talk. I want her to think mommies are fun and like to spend quality time with babies. We read at least 3 books every night before bed and now I've decided that we will play with her toys for the time in between dinner and bed. Even if it's only for 15 minutes.

Lately The Baby has been crying when I say good bye to her in the morning or when she can tell I'm getting ready to leave. This just breaks my heart!! Part of me worries that it's the new sitter, but the other part of me knows that this is because she is getting older and realizes that mommy is going to leave. Either way it brings up my mommy guilt and I haven't quite figured out how to deal with that yet. I remind myself that me leaving for work is a good thing and puts a roof over her head, but it sure is hard to leave that adorable little face in the morning, especially when it is tear stained and has the I want my mommy look on it. I don't know if it ever gets easier, but I sure it does.

That being said, it's Thursday and I have a 3 day weekend ahead of me! I'm very excited for the extra time with The Baby and hope that I might even get to spend some quality time with The Man. I won't get my hopes up, but it sure will be nice if it happens. :)