Finding Inspiration

When you become a parent you become a teacher. You spend those early days teaching baby to nurse, later you teach baby to sit up, eat on their own, later you teach them morals and what it means to be a good person and how to treat others. The teaching never ends. The amazing part, I am learning, is that your child teaches you just as much as you teach them. These past few weeks my daughter has been a huge inspiration to me to get back into shape.

These past few weeks my little one has decided that she really wants to learn to walk. She spends her days with arms stretched out to us so that we will take her hands and walk her around the house. If we fail to walk her long enough she practices walking along the couch or table. This little obsession of hers carries out in everything she does. We go to a weekly song circle where kids 0-3 listen, sing along and dance to Mr. C who sings and plays his guitar. Kaylee usually has a blast dancing (popping her little chest in and out which is an improvement from her old jumping dance style) and watching the older kids twirling around. Now that she has her eye on walking she could care less about Mr. C and her dancing friends. We spent the entire 30 minutes of music time pacing back and forth along the side of the room. There is no time for play when she has a goal in mind.

On April 23rd little Kaylee took her very first steps, walking from Papi's arms, taking wobbly independent steps only to land safely in my arms. My husband and I were cheering, I was squealing with excitement I thought I would burst with pride. And Kaylee? Oh, she was like, "Yeah, mom and dad, easy as pie!" I am pretty sure she was more proud of herself when she ate dirt in the garden the other day.

She has tasted freedom, independence, walking! But this little one is not satisfied. She continues to practice every waking hour. We brought her to the park yesterday (a warm 80 degree day, might I add) to swing on the swings, but Kaylee would have none of it. We had to walk all along the play structure four times and when it was time to go home she refused the stroller. Instead I held her hands as she walked herself as far home as she could go. Suddenly, her little legs gave out and she plopped on the ground. This little girl walked herself to exhaustion!

So here I am wanting to build my endurance, wanting to build my lung power, my strength  Here I am trying to improve a skill I already do well(ish) which is significantly easier than learning a brand new skill (walking!). I make excuses in the morning as to why I don't really need to go to the gym only to find myself begrudgingly hopping into the pool to swim my slow motion laps. Then I come home to see my daughter giving all she has to walking, to learning a new skill and I think how I should be more like her. I should wake and tell myself that, no, I am not the best swimmer and in fact I have a long way to go, but I am going to give it my all! She inspires me to be my best, to do my best. Oh, I have so very much to learn from this little 10 month old!