I get asked off and on how I stay in shape. It's true, I do a walking in place DVD about 3-4 times a week or more if I can manage, but I think the truth is that it is almost entirely you.
You keep me moving beyond any point I would have thought possible. I can hear my brain throw in the towel and my muscles yelling at me long before it's quitting time. We dance and sing and run in circles time and again. I make myself into a tunnel that you crawl under and I "collapse" on you and set to tickling. We play airplane and up-and-down where I lift you high in the air and then swing you downward so you get that stomach in your throat feeling and then lift you high in the air again. We jump and play chase with each other and Daddy, volley balloons and I'll swing you around by the arms. I climb under tables to whisper conspiratorially with you about whether or not the dogs will find us and then squeal and jump up and run when they non-challantly glance in our direction. I push you on your big wheel and little bike because you haven't yet learned how to peddle it.
And then there is this activity, too, where I put you on a blanket and pull you around the floor of the house in circles while you look around at the new perspective of the room that this gives you and laugh at passing Daddy and the dog's feet as they watch us and agree that we are definitely both insane and won't it suck when they have to send us to the looney bin together?
The truth is, I sometimes wonder where I would be without this prodding to keep going and this internal need to please that pushes me to listen when you prompt me for just one more time, Mommy!
When the evening finally comes and you are tucked snuggly away in bed, I sit down at my computer before passing out myself and I think about the day we had and I'm usually amazed at how much got packed into it.
Don't get me wrong - I frequently find myself wondering if it's possible that I'm raising a toddler with the highest endurance factor ever AND there are times when I think of putting you down to bed at 5 (but somehow, I don't).
But these playful moments of you and me are for a limited time only and I'm learning so much about myself all this time. You raise the bar and challenge my limits and I find that I rise to the occassion - sometimes much to my amazement!
You've shown me that I'm a much stronger person than I would have guessed I could possibly be and I have you to thank for that because I have a tendency towards complacency and staying within my comfort zone and - the more I've been pushed out of it - the more I realize I would have missed if I hadn't been.
So those are my thoughts at the end of this very active weekend. Thank you for the fun times, little buddy! Let's do it again tomorrow!
Love,
Mommy
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