blabbery featured parenting toddlers: baby weight fitness gym equipment jogging toddlers weight loss working out with kids
by Blabby
2 comments
running
Did I tell you that I made it to the gym the other day? We got up on a Monday, had a small breakfast and headed to the newer gym that just opened near my house. I brought William to the kids club - their little babysitting facility, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the kids club at the new gym is almost twice the size of the one at the older gym. There were a lot of kids, but because of all the space, everyone seemed happy and occupied - coloring, playing dinosaurs, watching Dora. William walked right in, picked up a bull dozer and started playing. I headed out to the floor and had a nice 45 min. workout. I jogged and walked on a treadmill, used the ellipticals, did a bunch of crunches and girl pushups and stretched. It was wonderful.
I went to get William and he seemed happy, albeit ready to go.
The next day, we get to the gym and we’re heading into the main doors and he moves behind me and gives me a little shove, saying, “you go, mommy, I’ll stay here.” Um, what? Then he says, “I’m not going to the gym anymore.” We went inside anyway where he proceeded to scream and cry like I was pinching him or pulling his hair or something. Very dramatic.
Well, it’s not like gymnastics where we can just stay even though he’s crying. For the sake of the three care providers and the 10 or so other kids in the kids club, I felt obligated to get my crier out of there. Thereby giving in to his tantrum. Ugh.
My only option at this point is to go at night once my husband gets home. This plan is kind of crappy because I don’t ever feel like going at 8 pm and it’s very easy to make excuses.
Nonetheless, I’ve got some weight to lose…I need a plan.
blabbery parenting toddlers: live green parenting no-no's recycling toy packaging waste
by Blabby
4 comments
oh, and one more thing
about all the toys. We’re a fairly green family. Except that my husband drives an hour to and from work and works for a water-bottling company. You can bet we recycle those bottles, but still.
We compost, we recycle everything, we use reusable bags instead of plastic bags - except to hold cat poop, we buy biodegradable (read “even more expensive”) diapers.
But the packaging on these toys we’re buying our kid are undoing all the good. Two layers of hard plastic surrounded by tons of cardboard, paper instructions, a box around the cardboard and plastic, steel ties (well, maybe not steel, but ridiculously hard to cut) around each toy that has to be sawed off with a chainsaw…I now make sure I have my camping knife with me when we go to Target. I also keep a box cutter in the car.
Crazy? If you think so, perhaps you’ve never had to open a Thomas the Train package.
I think the Europeans have the right idea. Because there are limits on the amount of trash you produce (you have to pay more if you need a bigger receptacle), stores will take all the packaging for you.
But really, if there weren’t so many thieves in this country, the packaging wouldn’t be so extreme.
parenting toddlers: parenting sick babies toddler gymnastics toddlers
by Blabby
3 comments
vacate, por favor
Well, we just returned from a mini vacation, and yet, I feel unrested and ready for another one.
Today was an interesting day in the world of parenting a 2 year old. Gymnastics started today - we were very excited, with my son saying, “nastics…cool!” all morning. So we go, and there are about eight other 2-3 year olds in the room, all with at least one parent. The teacher starts the music (itsy bitsy spider) for the warm-up. William and I go to sit on the mat in the circle, and he starts to wail. He squirms around and gets a death grip on my neck and won’t let any part of him touch that mat. And so, that is how we conducted our first gymnastics class…45 minutes of neck gripping and “let’s go door!” with him pointing fervently toward the exit.
Next, because gymnastics was considerably more stressful than I had imagined, we headed to his favorite park. We played happily in the pristine (raked twice a day!) sand with the bucket, shovel and castle for about 20 minutes. A cute little boy about William’s age wanders over and picks up his monster truck. No biggie - we start to all play together, and the boys mom comes over and we start chatting. She’s really nice, I tell her about gymnastics, she said she went through the same thing, etc.
Then William starts projectile vomiting chocolate milk and watermelon all over the perfect sand.
The nice lady says, “uh oh, he’s sick…come on honey, let’s leave him alone,” and they hightail it to the opposite side of the park. Meanwhile, William pukes two more times, soaking a good three square feet of sand. I frantically start scooping the pink sand into the buckets and carrying it over to the trash. 15 bucket and castle-fulls later, I believe the sand is once again kid ready.
He threw up one more time in the car as we were pulling into the driveway. Luckily, it stayed in the car seat. Then, he threw up crazy yellow bile after his nap. Scary stuff - this is the sickest he’s ever been (knock on wood!) We’ve been so lucky with sickness, we don’t even know how to act!
Anyway, he’s sleeping well now. No fever, just a little dehydrated and lethargic. Poor little guy.
I think there must be a lovely Pigeon Forge cabins with my name on it somewhere far far away.
