Aerobics Baby

As part of my "take a year off" plan I've decided to get back into exercising. Every Monday and Friday morning at the Stake Center there's an Aerobics class for the sisters in our area. The numbers are few, but the instructors are awesome and still keep pumping out creative moves even if there's only one person there. All of the women there are mothers– except me– who bring their babies or their pregnant bellies to get a work out. Well, as well of a work out as you can being pregnant and/or chasing a toddler around. We do our workout in the gym so with a few toys from the nursery as incentives the kids actually do really well. And when there's more kids to play with the mothers can get ten minute chunks of workout in.

I don't have a car so I have to bum a ride from one of the willing sisters in my neighborhood. Luckily the neighborhood I live in has been deemed "Little Provo" so it only takes three minutes to walk to a sister's house and ride with them. My LDS neighbors are awesome! I feel so bad sometimes having to always ask for rides from people, even when we're going to the same place. I do try to do something in return for them. My wonderful friend Kristin who is handicapped has given me rides to aerobics. I help her with her wheel chair and I attempt to help her with her oldest daughter Kayla, but Kayla is a very strong willed little girl (she'd probably get really upset at me for calling her "little") and refuses to let me help her get out of the car. In fact she asked me once when I was going to get my own car because she was tired of giving me rides everywhere! (Kristin only gave me rides to aerobics.) Kristin was horrified at what her daughter said. I laughed– I thought it was kinda funny. Although, I prolly shouldn't have laughed in front of Kayla, that might encourage that kind of behavior more. I have a feeling though she wouldn't need any encouragement.

Kayla won't need to worry about giving me anymore rides. On Friday I got a ride from Ashley, who realized the value of giving a ride to someone. This meant she had no excuse to not get out of bed and go to aerobics. Ashley's about three months pregnant and doesn't do well during pregnancies. She also has an almost two year old named Ethan. He can be a handful sometimes because he inherited his parents long skinny legs and his mother's love to run. Every time I see Ashley she's running after him. However, he is a sweet boy despite is urge to play catch me if you can with his mother. Ashley was so excited to take me to aerobics not only because it made her go to, but because afterwards I get to play with Ethan for about 15 minutes while she takes a shower (Ethan freaks out when she showers).

Today, as we warmed up by walking around the perimeter of the gym Ashley had disappeared somewhere and Ethan was running behind me. I would turn around and smile at him and he'd get this big huge grin on his face and start running faster towards me like I was his own mother. For a few minutes I thought this must be what it's like to have your own child run after you with this look of pure joy. I've never had a kid do that. Not even my pet bunny will give me an affectionate look like that. Little Ethan who came up to me while we were in our heavy duty work out and handed me some blocks with that same grin that he gives his mother. For a second I felt kind of bad for Ashley because he wasn't sharing his toys with her or dancing in circles with her. But then I realized she probably appreciated not having to do those things so she could get a proper workout. I don't know why he runs after me like this. I thought maybe he might have actually mistaken me for his mother but his mother is tall and thin while I'm short and plump. Maybe it's just his personality.

After aerobics Ashley slipped upstairs to take a shower while I distracted him. He has this little Tonka semi truck with a detaching trailer that also opens up in the back. With two little Duplos and a race car I spent 15 minutes having him put in the blocks and car, closing the back of the trailer only to have me dump them out again. I thought the game should be the other way around, but I don't think he's figured out how to dump things out of that trailer yet. When he would wander towards the stairs about ready to look for his mom I would call him, he'd look over and I'd dump the trailer out again. Then I would tell him to come put everything back in. And with that big grin–having completely forgot about his mother– he'd come running back over and put everything back in. What a sweet boy little Ethan is!