Joy's Life and Times: Doing enough

I recently was reading something about making sure children get enough physical activity during the day. Hunter, some days, asks to be carried a lot (he gets it from his mom, who was nicknamed "Big Pig" during toddlerhood because of the frequency of asking to be pigged up-- amongst other reasons I'm sure). So I wondered aloud to J if he's getting enough physical activity. I mean, he wears me out chasing him, but what's plenty for an 18-month-old? J assured me that I was crazy to even ask that, and then I realized that our choice of hobbies might skew my perception of a normal -- or even excessive --amount of exercise.

Ok, so he's doing enough to reach his goals. I have to make some assumptions here, like that his goals are to grow, be healthy, and continue to learn everything about the world. I may not be doing enough running to reach my half marathon goals, though. I'm wondering if I should go ahead and sign up, given the race is in 3 weeks. Jenny and I did our "track" workout on Wednesday, accompanied by Emily this time, who, as a gymnast, uses running mostly as a tool in roundoff-backhandsprings, and not just a fun pasttime. She did 3 x 800s and then so many plyometrics we wondered how she was still bouncing. Jenny and I did the descending part of a pyramid: 1600, 2x800, 4x400, and I seemed to hold the same pace in all of them. Hrmph. At least that pace is faster than goal half marathon. Jenny keeps dropping like 10 seconds off her 800 times every week. Hrmph again. I wish I could.

So, I've established that I'm not doing enough for my running goals. Well, what else is there? Mommying goals, of course. If Hunter could be the happiest, smartest, sweetest boy there ever was, I guess my work would be successful. That's a much trickier goal, since nobody has written training plans for it.

I am on a few parenting pages on Facebook and a recent poll asked how often parents are down on the floor playing with their kids. Wait, is this as opposed to carrying him, holding his tiny (giant) hand as he leads me around, coloring with him at his table, and running after him in the yard? Because that sums up my day along with playing on the floor with him. What was the question? I'm not sure what else full time Moms do then! I guess if I need to check a box about playing on the floor with my baby, I'm doing enough of that.

Pretending to sleep in the tent. Only pretending.

I seem to be doing enough in the eating ice cream category lately. Cannot stop the bowl full of vanilla with a peach on top daily habit. I think of Laura's excellent nutrition every time! And aunt Ethelyn, who introduced me years ago to this delicacy.

Taking pictures wasn't my forte in the last month, but I managed to snap a few of other things we have been doing.

Mickey, you need to draw something for me. Here, like this.