4th of July Weekend Wrap Up and the BEST DAY!

I can't believe that it is already Sunday night...this holiday weekend went by WAY too fast! My mom and sister Alieson came in on Friday and spent the weekend with us. Our 4th of July was peaceful and uneventful...we took Colin to the pool with his Aunt Alie and had some fun in the sun. Jer made his famous burgers on the grill for dinner and my mom bought our favorite blueberry pies on her way here and we feasted on them all night! My poor dad had to work all weekend long and we missed him. Yesterday we all went to Mercado Juarez for lunch and then drove around looking at houses that none of us can afford. :-) Today....ah today. Today was the single best day that I can remember having in forever. My sweet mother basically kicked me out of the house all day long. I have been needing to run some errands and have been putting them off because they were tough to accomplish with Colin in tow. She told me that she wanted time alone with Colin without me in the way and to get lost. ;-) She even gave me a little stash of spending money as a special present and told me to enjoy myself. I have the greatest mother on the planet. I left the house at 10:30am and headed out. I first parked myself in a bookstore and spent over an hour walking around the entire store, reading the backs of every single book I could get my hands on. The bookstore is sacred ground to me...it is where I find my own inner peace...books as far as the eye can see!! I can't honestly remember the last time I got to mill around a bookstore with no time restraint. I walked each aisle slowly and devoured the experience. I only bought a single book, but it was probably the most therapeutic thing I have done in a year. I left there and headed out to several other shops looking for something cute, comfy and inexpensive to wear to Colin's birthday party. It was wonderful to meander around the stores at my own pace. Typically, I ended up looking at things for Colin instead of me, but it felt like heaven to search slowly through the baby clothes without the little man trying to climb out of his stroller about 30 seconds into the first store. :-) After my shopping trip, I met my sister for lunch at La Madeline, which is one of my favorite places EVER to eat. Then we went together and had...get this...A PEDICURE!!!!!!!!!! I used to get pedi's ever three weeks before I had Colin. I was addicted to them and when we were childless, it was just something I did to unwind from work. I have not had one since the week before Colin was born. It was AMAZING! I did not get home until 3:45!!! I seriously don't think that I needed anything more than the day I had today. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I have not had a day to myself since Colin's birth. I realized today how much I need time for me. It felt so good just to...be. Several hours where I was not watching out for someone else...just existing. I did not realize that I was so tightly wound until I was in that bookstore...and I felt the stress sliding away. I see now that in order to take good care of Colin, I need to take care of me, too. I am going to force myself to take one Saturday or Sunday a month and schedule time for me. At least one afternoon where I can walk around a library or bookstore...just some time to myself to allow my mind to slow down. I don't know really how to put it into words or make sense of what I felt today. It is hard to explain. When you spend all your time taking care of an infant, you are "on" every second. It is wonderful, but exhausting on a level beyond the physical. I did not realize how "on" I had been until I was alone today and was able to turn that off for a few hours. I feel refreshed in a way that sleep does not touch. I can't really think of another way to explain it, but it was amazing. I love my mom so much for taking such good care of me and my family. I would never have been able to justify spending money on a pedicure and she knew that when she gave me the present of today. I love her so much.