Work It

I'm feeling very antsy. I haven't been able to go on my daily walk the past few days. The Girl has been sick. I thought she was getting better yesterday, but then she got worse. She seems better again. The fever hasn't returned. I've had to threaten to tie her to the couch in order to make her rest. She misses the walks she says. They've been good for all of us.

Even The Boy enjoys them. I didn't think anything that wasn't a video game would be enjoyable for him. He does try to fake a cramp on the fourth lap. I'll play along and suggest we start our cool down. During the cool down he winds up jumping around and sometimes jogging, exerting himself more than he did during the walk. He doesn't realize that I know he's faking the cramping.

Mom didn't realize that he did the fake cramp thing when she went with him for a walk last night. Usually, The Girl teams up with her and The Boy teams up with me. The Girl is too full of energy for me. She's usually running up ahead and then running back to walk with mom, then running up ahead again and so on the whole time. I tried walking with her and wound up tripping over her and walking into a thorny bush to avoid her because she can't seem to walk a straight line.

Mom can't walk with The Boy because he whines and fakes cramps. I can distract him from that and keep him going. I'm also asthmatic, so I need to keep my pace a bit slower than The Girl. My pace is faster than The Boy's so he gets a decent work out going. I told The Boy that I'll have him jogging by summer. He gave me a worried look. I make sure he warms up and cools down and stretches because if I don't, he won't. The pairings work well.

I also mentioned maybe getting some jump ropes and hula hoops. I want to make exercising fun for the kids-- and, to be honest, for us adults too-- to keep them coming back for more. And jumping rope and hula hooping burns an insane amount of calories. We might also get swimming lessons during the summer. I can swim, but I want to learn the real way. All of the different strokes. I want to throw in some yoga and pilates back into my exercise regime for the stretching and the toning. It seems more fun than just lifting weights. The Girl seemed very interested in both. I just need to find a place big enough for our two clumsy selves to do it and hopefully keep from getting bruises and bumps.

Anyone have any work out tips for kids? Any suggestions would be appreciated.