notes from the gym, child interaction question

The plague is finally gone from my household! Evie and M were sick at the same time, and I held out until they were just about well to succumb to it, thereby making the house of sick last for nearly two weeks. I was feeling pretty guilty because the last time I went to the gym was Friday before last, so almost two weeks. That's one of the positive aspects of hating to spend money. Since I'm PAYING for a gym membership, I want to USE it and therefore when I don't, I feel GUILTY. :) Now, I have tried to strike random guilt from my life but in this case...whatever helps.

I am still doing pretty well with the whole Healthy Lifestyle Change kick (two weeks of staying home from working out excepted.) I even kept at the diet while sick and while out of town, which are both triggers for me. I've lost 7.5 pounds as of today--that number might go back up a little but that's what the scale said this morning so I'm running with it. I finally made it to the gym this morning, which I felt good about. What I feel even BETTER about is that I decided to sleep in this morning, knowing that I was going to go there first thing, and thereby saving my shower until after the exercise. Usually, M wakes me up half an hour before he leaves for work so I can shower before Evie gets up. Thursdays are 'early' days for him and he leaves the house at 7:20, so... I snuggled back down and napped until 8:30. It was really nice.

carrieb always had fun stories about what people were doing at the gym but I have been going at 'off' times, for the most part, and I don't yet have a large number of amusing gym stories. I hope that they get more interesting as time goes on because I feel this is something I should be getting with my paid membership--amusement value from the other people there. :) It works better for me to go in the morning. There seems to be a distinct difference in the morning and afternoon crowds. In the morning, you have mostly the housewife and retiree crowd. In the afternoon, you have the "I am here for a Serious Workout After Work" crowd, and they scare me a little. Also, they make me want to match their intensity and I am just so not in their league. Plus, they're really busy in the afternoon and nearly empty in the morning. I like empty. However, the last time I was there,it was the afternoon and I had my first exposure to a member that made me laugh. On the inside, because I don't want to get my ass kicked. He was lifting weights and he wanted us alllllll to know about it. He would groan loudly, signalling that he was very manly and had just lifted something extraordinarily heavy. These were loud, frequent and dramatic groans that bordered on shouts. He sounded for all the world like a mentally challenged teenager who had just discovered masturbation. I'm pretty sure that was not the effect he was going for. .... I hope, anyway. You never know with some people. Other than him, everyone has been pretty boring.

Evie has been enjoying going to the childcare place, but it kind of breaks my heart because she so clearly does not know what to do around other kids. She says that no one ever wants to play with her. I think it's just that she doesn't know how to join in on their games because she's not used to playing with other kids except her cousins, who she already knows. Plus, I think it hurts her socially that she's only three but she's so tall that she looks older, but of course she doesn't really act as mature as the bigger kids might expect and then she thinks she's much older (because she's bigger) than the kids her own age. I have been trying to give her some help on what she should say to the other kids and encourage her that she needs to be able to make the first move, so to speak, but the thing is... she's acting exactly like I used to. I still suck ass at meeting people and I'm 31. I've been trying to explain to her that sometimes other kids just don't know how to start playing with other kids just like she doesn't know. I have this notion of coming up with some things for her to say to get to know other kids/start playing with them, and then we can sort of roleplay with them until they feel more natural, but... again, I suck at this kind of thing. I never really "got" it when I was a kid, either. So, how do kids start playing with each other? This feels like such a stupid question. How do I teach her how to be more comfortable with other children?

Oh, and yes, letting her go to the childwatching place is a large part of why I wanted to get a membership to the YMCA. The preschool situation here is somewhat... scarce. Well, there are public preschools, but they're for developmentally delayed kids or low-income familes. There's a private preschool that I know of, but it's quite pricey. That's another reason why I wanted to do swimming lessons, and we've been doing storytime at the library for quite some time. I have been searching for a variety of places to take her to interact with children, but it's hard for me because I am not very social either.(Storytime, though? LOVE. IT. I wish I had started taking her there much, much sooner. It gives us something to do, somewhere to go, and she sees a lot of the same kids every time she goes. It'll probably be even better for her after her birthday in May because I think she will identify better with the kids int he age 4-5 group rather than the 2-3 group she's in... they're mostly younger than she is now.) So... I'm really trying to help her with this... I just wish I knew HOW. :)

Okay, I am being booted from the computer so she can play a game that is conveniently only on my computer. :) I've been sitting here long enough anyway.. time to get some stuff done.