Running Out of Breath

I'm not used to having such a long winter right after having a baby. I'm used to being pregnant all winter (with the boys), when my lack of energy coincides with the cold weather- both being reasons not to get out so much. And then during the summer I would get back in shape after the baby and all was good in the world.

This time, I spent the second half of the summer dragging myself to the nearest park bench and planting my seven months pregnant belly and myself onto it for the next couple of hours while the boys did their boy things.

After Adel was born, I didn't have a chance to come to my senses when winter struck. The extent of my exercising became going down the steps to wait for Zusha's bus. Oh, and going back up the steps, too. I would think back to where I was one year ago: walking at least four miles a day bringing Zusha to cheider and picking him up- and then going to 13th Avenue when he was in cheider, or in the evening after the kids went to sleep, or both. My entire day consisted of nothing but exercise!

All through the long and miserable winter when all I did was hop from one heated store to the next before scurrying home, I kept thinking, "The summer will come and I will exercise! I will be out all day and walk and run and get back in shape." And when I finished thinking that, I'd think, "You are just making excuses and procrastinating. You won't really become more active when the weather gets warm. You just say that to assuage your guilt."

But I'm happy to have proven myself right and wrong. Right about being more active as the weather gets nicer, and wrong about it all being procrastination.
On Friday I pretended to pour water on Zusha, which got some real fun going! He grabbed my bottle and started chasing me. It was so much fun! We ran so much all over the park. He splashed me several times. When he got tired, he stopped running and said in a very mature tone, "Mama. Stop, Mama. Stop running. I'm not going to splash you. Listen. Today is a very nice and warm day. You're supposed to get wet. So stand here and let me pour the water on you."
And then we started running again.

One of the parks here has a track, and all of us ran around it. Gedalya caught me a few times for real, without me letting him win. Truthfully, I was wearing shoes and not sneakers, but so was he wearing sandals.

Sometimes when we are walking all together, we'd start running and run for one block. Slowly but surely, we are getting there. Today after walking over two miles during the day, I went out for another mile in the evening. It's still not the 4 miles plus that I used to do easily on a daily basis, but it's progress nonetheless.