Exercising with kids

Those of you who are parents know that having kids around sometimes can be a real pain, and those of you who have kids and have to workout with them know this to be a fact literally!

I am a mom to the most wonderful 2 ½ year old little girl (I am not just saying this because she is mine, this is a fact). She truly is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me. I absolutely love this little girl to death and I have no idea what I ever did without her. However, there are times when she can be a real pain.

I am sure you all know by now that I love to workout. Not just running, anything that gets me moving I pretty much love to do. Being a mother can make it hard to do at times, well not the moving part I think once you become a parent you never stop moving after all we have to chase our little stinkers everywhere. On Sunday the sun came out for the first time in weeks and I decided it was a great day to go for a run. My husband was on reserve duty and my mother who came by for the weekend was gone so it was just me and my little darling. Unfortunately the jogging stroller has a major alignment issue right now so that was not an option, so my solution was to hit the track. The track is fenced in (no escaping toddler) and there was plenty of area for Amanda to play while mommy ran, and of course the park across the street would make a good bribe to get her to be good so I could run (bribes are a parents secret weapon, we have to have one ready at all times).

When I asked Amanda if she wanted to go running with mommy she lit up, she loves to run. So we got ready and off to the track we went. I got us all set up in a spot with toys, snacks, and drinks. Amanda wanted to run for a while so I took off with her around the track. She made it about half way then wanted me to hold her, so I had to run half the track carrying an extra 30 pounds, let’s just say I was not breaking any speed records here. I get back to our stuff and ask Amanda to stay there while I ran around a couple more times. When I came around the last turn she started running towards me with a big grin saying “MOMMY MOMMY” she had her hands up and was so excited, I snatched her up and ran back to our stuff. She then wanted to run around again so I said okay lets go, we get around the turn and she head right to the fence and says “I go slide mommy” while pointing at the park. So I tell her after we run we will go to the park okay baby, let’s go run now. Her response “NO, I GO SLIDE NOW!” at this point she through a fit and I had to run around the track with a screaming and kicking additional 30 pounds. I finally get her to calm down and tell her if she is good and lets mommy run around just a couple more times we will go to the slide. This seemed to work and I got my run in, along with some extra strength training.

So last night Neal and I were doing Yoga with Amanda. She likes us to set up a mat for her and she will join us in some of it (it is really cute). I will say that Yoga with a 2yr old is NOT relaxing. While doing balance postures, Amanda found it very funny to push mommy or daddy so they would fall down; this seemed to really crack her up so she kept at it. Next while twisted up like a pretzel and having my head hanging upside down all of a sudden a little face would be right in mine saying “I WOVE OU MOMMY!” The next thing that Amanda would find funny would be to climb on top of me while I was in different poses. One such pose put me on my back with my feet bent over my head and my feet touching the ground above my head (this just sound wrong doesn’t it?), my little darling then climbed on my legs so I could not get out of the pose and frankly could not breath, Neal was kind enough to stop laughing long enough to rescue me. One hour and a half later we finished our Yoga feeling more frazzled than relaxed.

I love being a mom, and I would not trade it for anything; but there are times when it is a pain. Those of you with kids I am sure you can relate and are thinking been there done that, those without enjoy it while you can because once you have one your life changes for ever. But I will tell you this I would not trade it even for a nice run without tantrums and an extra 30 pounds to carry, or a night of relaxing Yoga.