So I took her to the Y and snuck in a quick workout, including an indulgent 6 minutes on a regular stationary bike. It's risky for my fragile sacro-iliac joint, but all the treadmills were taken. I'd forgotten how much I like cycling! Then some treadmill time, which reminded me how much I don't like that. It's boring. Odd that I don't find swimming and stationary cycling boring, but treadmill is? I suspect an MP3 player would solve that.
I made it to Gabriel's gymnastics class just in time to see him get stamps on his hands at the end. But, I was surprised to hear from Kristi and Stacey that Gabriel is pretty good at it. That could be because he's been doing it for a while and is older than most of the kids in his class (even though he's still among the smallest), but maybe he's really taken to it. He was never much of a climber and was slow to learn coordinated things, but once he does learn, he learns well if he likes it. I was thinking of putting him in something else (he's very inconsistent when I ask him what he wants to do), but maybe we'll try more gymnastics. His skinny short build might be perfect for that.
After gymnastics, we took the boys, and Katrina, to the little playground outside the building. It was cold today! 45 degrees here is not only unusual, but feels colder than I remember 45 degrees feeling back East. So we didn't stay long, but I did try to get some pictures, and ran around with the boys a little.
To my delight, I discovered a payoff from my treadmill torture: trotting across a field doesn't knock me flat anymore. Even before my miserable pregnancy, I pretty much never ran, except for the occasional parental sprint to apprehend a wayward child. Indeed, our adult lives rarely call for any gait faster than a walk unless you're about to miss an airplane connection. But what a shame, I loved running as a kid. Now, I'd be lucky to stick out half a mile without collapsing, and that much only thanks to the treadmill work, but at least I can outrun the boys again!
Later in the afternoon, I took Katrina and Gabriel to Logitech Ice Arena in San Jose, to get myself some ice skates at their Pro Shop. I'd never been there before, and was delighted to find two ice rinks and the place swarming with girls' hockey teams. Katrina was fussy and didn't allow much time shopping for skates in the Pro Shop there, but I did manage to quickly try on a pair. It turns out that when you buy skates, they have to sharpen the blades, and this took a long time.
Enough time that we got to watch a junior-high-school girls' team start a game. I was blown away and so impressed -- these girls were good! They were great skaters and looked every bit as aggressive and confident as a San Jose Shark. I'd forgotten how exciting it is to watch hockey in person. Interestingly, the little girls seemed to be sharper and faster skaters than the older (high school?) girls in the other rink. You go girls! I was glad Gabriel's first live hockey experience was to see all girls (in fact I didn't see a single male hockey player among the teems of teams there). And fussy-fuss Katrina loved watching the hockey games!
Outside, there was a team of 11-year-old (or so) girls warming up in the parking lot with some pushup and stretching exercises, chanting, "Quarter pounder, french fries, milk shakes and big slurp soda..." My goodness, I had no idea the junk food culture was that deeply ingrained! (Though I confess that I find baked goods to be an excellent motivator.)
Katrina had a hard time hanging on to naps today, and as a result, wasn't as smiley and joyful as usual. Let's hope for some joy tonight, in the form of deep long dreams of skating.
1/13/07
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