What Life’s All About

It’s Saturday night. I’m in a strange bed. My hubby is next to me. My boys are in another bed, passed out cuddled up into each other, wiped from a day at the Zoo and running around. I’m bloated and my jeans have left bruises on my hips (literally) from the tightness from all of this week’s eating, but I’m as happy as a clam. Because at the end of the day, for me, family is what it’s all about.

We decided to visit Toronto for the weekend to see family and friends and to take the boys to the Hockey Hall of Fame. They have been off from school all week, so besides a day trip to the US on Wednesday and the weekend in Toronto, I did my best to keep them occupied and happy. I must say, mission accomplished.

After pounding the crap out of a mannequin at a kick-boxing class this morning, I felt great. Ready to take on Toronto. There I was, sweating my ass off, music BLASTING, boxing gloves, punching this dummy in the chest, in the face, and laughing. I looked like the biggest rookie… everyone was concentrating, working, punching, and there I was, perma-smile, cuz the instructor was again BLASTING my favorite music (This is how we do it, I got the power, etc…), and I looked too happy to be beating the crap out of a rubber guy staring so seriously back at me. But I felt free. And really, at the end of the day, life’s about freedom and doing the things you love to do. I must tell my gym in Montreal to buy some of these dummies for kick-boxing classes. They rock!

And as I lay in bed tonight, I can’t help but think how life changes when you have kids. Before I had kids 6 years ago, I had never stepped foot in a Wal-Mart. EVER.IN.MY.LIFE. I had never stepped foot into a Chuck E Cheese (I had heard of it, but thought it was a cheese shop… for real), or even a Toys R Us for that matter. I’m an only child with no nieces or nephews, so baby gifts consisted of Burberry sleepers and snowsuits from the fancy children’s clothing store. It was all I knew.  And then at 28 years old, my life changed, as all of our lives do after we push out the basketball growing inside us for 9 months. And I think priorities start to shift. We don’t lose ourselves, (at least we hope we don’t), but things start to take on a different meaning.

When we had our big son, we at first took him to all the non kid-friendly places. We took him to the places WE liked. Our idea was, “our kids will learn how to adapt and fit into OUR life.” And I fought him on being quiet in these “nice” places, and to be proper and well behaved. We made a fancy living room instead of a kid-friendly den, because I thought it was important for my children to learn how to live with, and have respect for nice things. But then I realized Chuck E Cheese was invented for a reason. And that fancy living rooms were difficult to keep “fancy” when you have crawly toddlers spitting up all over the place. And all of a sudden, taking him to those fancy restaurants with poop dripping down his legs and nowhere to change him, became sorta futile. And life took on a new meaning. Now, wipes are a staple in every room in my house. Hand-me-downs are passed from big brother to little brother, and no one will die because of it. All those Burberry snowsuits and sleepers are full of spit-up stains, and they’re just things anyhow. Cuz life’s about the bigger picture.

So as I turn 35 this Wednesday, April 7th, I’ve come to love the life I have created (even though a great night’s sleep is a thing of the past). I’ve realized that life is about enjoying the little things. I think about my life…. my teenage years were about friendship and experimentation – experimentation with boys, with drugs (yah even ecstasy in Ibiza), and with life in general. My twenties were about career choices, growing my business, getting married, settling down and growing our family. My thirties have been about selling my business, settling in as mom and domesticated diva 🙂 and now, as Blogger. As I embark upon my mid thirties, I really do realize we get one shot.  So, I’m trying to make the most fun out of it.

And I’ve realized a few things about life: