Sunday morning Monopoly.

Not Sunday morning run.
Not Sunday morning yoga.
Not Sunday morning gym time.
It is hard for me to sit still. I blame this whole-heartedly on both the Menkedick and Heile sides of the family. My dad never stops. My mom is always walking. My grandmas on both sides worked and played voraciously. My Grandma Heile was mowing the grass in her 80s and my Grandma Menkedick was taking walking tours in hers. And so when I wake up, I’m ready to go go go.
But Sunday morning, I walked down the stairs to find myself being embraced in a full body hug by Mario.
“Let’s wrestle!”
Maria, he and I went at it rolling around the family room and tossing each other from one end to the other. It ended ten minutes later with Ri getting hurt; Mario slammed her earring into the back of her head. She cried for a second and then shot up on her feet and demanded: “let’s play monopoly!”
I hesitated.
It was 9 am and there was a yoga class at 10 am downtown. They rushed around the room trying to find the Monopoly game.
“I found it!” Mario exclaimed as he ran into the kitchen and knocked into Ri. She turned around and hugged him screaming “you are the man, Mario!”
They both turned to me and matter-of-factly said “ok, mom, you are the banker, let’s get started!”
How could I resist those sweet faces?
They are my trainers. They are making me work on chilling the heck out. They will make me plant my butt in the chair and remain seated for longer than two minutes. They will make me see what a gift it is to stay still and be fully present with them.
Mario rolled a ten and landed on a railroad.
“Yes! You will owe me $25 if you land on this railroad.”
Nothing like promoting his love of money by playing a game of Monopoly.
Ri has a bit more strategic thinking in her play – she goes straight after Park Place and Broadway.
After about 20 minutes of playing, it wasn’t me that stood up antsy. Ri and Mario both got up in search of food. We decided on chocolate chip pancakes. I prepared the batter and Ri and I flipped the cakes. Meanwhile, we continued to play the game. While the kiddos may have taught me to chill, they have not taught me to stop multi-tasking!
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