How that gym thing is going
In an effort to gain some small amount of freedom (yes, freedom) from the kids, both Monday and Tuesday of this week I went to the YMCA. I went knowing that it's going to be difficult to get my kids used to the YMCA daycare. Thomas has never been watched by anybody but me, Mike, once in a while by a grandma and ocassionally by an auntie Jennie. Same with Emily except for a brief stint when she was 10 weeks to 4 months old that I'm sure she doesn't remember.
On Monday we got to the Y by 10:30 and I left them in the daycare occupied and happy. Woo hoo, I thought, maybe this was going to work! I ran upstairs, got on a treadmill and ran for 25 minutes. My butt was jiggling. Ok, my butt and my back were jiggling, and my thighs were burning, but it felt great! Another thing that felt great was the realization that I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was. 20 minutes on the elliptical every day since January 1 has actually paid off. I wasn't embarassed to be at the gym and I think (just maybe) that I looked like I belonged there. Cause you know you don't belong in a gym if you look like you belong in a gym. Unfortunately. A middle-aged guy even said hi to me although by hi he may have meant, excuse me but you're hogging the stairs with your postpartum saddle bags, lady.
After I got off the treadmill I sauntered -- or maybe I swaggered -- over to the exercise mats. I only had time for a couple of deep stretches though when over the loudspeaker came, Mary Tsao please report to childwatch. Uh oh, party time was over. Back at the daycare center both Thomas and Emily were hysterical. Apparently Thomas had started crying and Emily got upset because he was crying and then she started crying and that's when they paged me. I felt awful. It's hard to see your kids unhappy and know that your selfish need to sweat to the oldies is what caused their unhappiness.
So of course we went back on Tuesday. I made up a song to get them used to the Y: It's fun to go to the YMCA, It's fun to go to the Y.M.C.A. Hey. You know the tune. This time I filled out the paperwork, plopped Thomas in a exersaucer, and turned to look at Emily in time to see her start sobbing her tiny heart out. Oh shit. Luckily they weren't that busy and one of the daycare workers took Emily in her arms and tried to soothe her. They told me to go so I went, but I didn't bound up the stairs nearly as excited as I had the day before. I managed to get in 25 minutes on the treadmill and right when I was approaching the mats to stretch over the loudspeaker came, Mary Tsao please report to childwatch. This time Thomas was fine but Emily was completely hysterical. She had fallen asleep for a little bit in this woman's arms but when the barrette she was clutching fell out of her hand she woke up and became hysterical again. When the woman told me this story I couldn't think of anything that had cause me more physical pain since I pushed Thomas out my love canal.
When we got home I gave Emily a juice box to try and make it up to her. I'm not going to give up, but I'm going to take a few days off from the Y. I hope next time it's a positive experience for both me and the kids.
Life updates:
Sometimes I start topics in entries and never reveal the outcome later. For those of you wondering how this day went, 1) We got our hot water heater replaced to the tune of $1150. It's a bigger, better, more bad-ass water heater than our old one, but to think that it cost more than the cost to deliver both of our kids combined is kind of weird. 2) The arborist came out and made me happy because he's been the first person ever to completely understand why we want to take down the three Montrey Pine trees in our yard. Most people give me a look as if to say, You tree-hating communist, you pro-concrete jungle freak, why don't you pave paradise and put up a parking lot, I pity you and your children, sad fool. The arborist agreed that the trees are diseased, that they're in the process of dying, and that backyards with grass, swing sets, laughing children, and automatic sprinkler systems don't mix with Monterey Pines. I felt validated and happy. Now I'm waiting for his letter to come in the mail so that I can attach it to our permit application and schlep it and my kids down to the County Planning office to pay a fee and apply for a permit to remove. What a lot of work. Too bad I don't have a wife to do this kind of stuff for me.
On Monday we got to the Y by 10:30 and I left them in the daycare occupied and happy. Woo hoo, I thought, maybe this was going to work! I ran upstairs, got on a treadmill and ran for 25 minutes. My butt was jiggling. Ok, my butt and my back were jiggling, and my thighs were burning, but it felt great! Another thing that felt great was the realization that I'm not as out of shape as I thought I was. 20 minutes on the elliptical every day since January 1 has actually paid off. I wasn't embarassed to be at the gym and I think (just maybe) that I looked like I belonged there. Cause you know you don't belong in a gym if you look like you belong in a gym. Unfortunately. A middle-aged guy even said hi to me although by hi he may have meant, excuse me but you're hogging the stairs with your postpartum saddle bags, lady.
After I got off the treadmill I sauntered -- or maybe I swaggered -- over to the exercise mats. I only had time for a couple of deep stretches though when over the loudspeaker came, Mary Tsao please report to childwatch. Uh oh, party time was over. Back at the daycare center both Thomas and Emily were hysterical. Apparently Thomas had started crying and Emily got upset because he was crying and then she started crying and that's when they paged me. I felt awful. It's hard to see your kids unhappy and know that your selfish need to sweat to the oldies is what caused their unhappiness.
So of course we went back on Tuesday. I made up a song to get them used to the Y: It's fun to go to the YMCA, It's fun to go to the Y.M.C.A. Hey. You know the tune. This time I filled out the paperwork, plopped Thomas in a exersaucer, and turned to look at Emily in time to see her start sobbing her tiny heart out. Oh shit. Luckily they weren't that busy and one of the daycare workers took Emily in her arms and tried to soothe her. They told me to go so I went, but I didn't bound up the stairs nearly as excited as I had the day before. I managed to get in 25 minutes on the treadmill and right when I was approaching the mats to stretch over the loudspeaker came, Mary Tsao please report to childwatch. This time Thomas was fine but Emily was completely hysterical. She had fallen asleep for a little bit in this woman's arms but when the barrette she was clutching fell out of her hand she woke up and became hysterical again. When the woman told me this story I couldn't think of anything that had cause me more physical pain since I pushed Thomas out my love canal.
When we got home I gave Emily a juice box to try and make it up to her. I'm not going to give up, but I'm going to take a few days off from the Y. I hope next time it's a positive experience for both me and the kids.
Life updates:
Sometimes I start topics in entries and never reveal the outcome later. For those of you wondering how this day went, 1) We got our hot water heater replaced to the tune of $1150. It's a bigger, better, more bad-ass water heater than our old one, but to think that it cost more than the cost to deliver both of our kids combined is kind of weird. 2) The arborist came out and made me happy because he's been the first person ever to completely understand why we want to take down the three Montrey Pine trees in our yard. Most people give me a look as if to say, You tree-hating communist, you pro-concrete jungle freak, why don't you pave paradise and put up a parking lot, I pity you and your children, sad fool. The arborist agreed that the trees are diseased, that they're in the process of dying, and that backyards with grass, swing sets, laughing children, and automatic sprinkler systems don't mix with Monterey Pines. I felt validated and happy. Now I'm waiting for his letter to come in the mail so that I can attach it to our permit application and schlep it and my kids down to the County Planning office to pay a fee and apply for a permit to remove. What a lot of work. Too bad I don't have a wife to do this kind of stuff for me.
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