Monday, May 3, 2010

Day 6: The Exercise Teacher

I think we've made a breakthrough. Whatever we went through yesterday was erased, and my son and I have reached an understanding. I think.

After school today, I suggested we go to the playground over at the Mount Pleasant Rec soccer fields by Patriots Point. Some men were mowing the grounds and such, so we grabbed hands and ran along the outside to get to the playground. Running while holding hands is a cool thing to do.

Today, Son was all into me playing with him. I think he gets it now. We did monkey bars, two sets (one twirly bars, which I could not do, and one regular, which I was thrilled to complete)! Then we went down slides and walked back up again, slid down poles and twisted around corkscrews, and climbed back up. Then my son got the hang of it. He announced we were going to do some exercises and that he was now my "Exercise Teacher."

We stepped up and down on a step. We did bench walking complete with foot kicks too the back of the bench, and foot taps and step ups on the arm of the bench. We heard an airplane overhead, so we put our arms out and did "Airplanes" around and around in a circle. By this point, I am loving my five-year-old's brain! He's great at this! We run a lap around the whole playground, balance on the border around it, then skip around a sign while saying the alphabet. I am digging this, AND breaking a sweat. And better yet, we have the whole playground to ourselves so neither one of us are self-conscious.

We played a full, and I mean FULL thirty minutes (until a bug stung his cheek), but his piece de la resistance was the "Spiderman". Perhaps you've never heard of this move. Well, simply put, there is a ladder that curves over to get you up into the larger of the two playground sets. Climbing up is easy, but oh, if you climb up backwards, on the back side, you will now be hanging upside down, a la Spiderman. My son even hooked his legs through, hung upside down, hooked his fingers on the underside of the play equipment and did five pull ups. Me? Not so much. The bar hurts the back of the knees and I was scared to fall on my head. It's a start though.

Learned a couple things today:

1. My fear is subsiding. I still have fear for some things, but on the playground, I'm trying them all. The thing that separates the Old Me from the New Playing Me six days later? My level of fear. It's much lower. My confidence lets me go faster and play harder.

2. My son is an awesome personal trainer. Today, we played well together. He's already planning tomorrow's "exercises" for me. I am loving this.

This is one lucky mom. Getting stronger.

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