Iron Man

Why we didn't think of this sooner, I don't know, but last weekend Nate went from exercise-resistant to exercise-enthusiast solely by virtue of our agreement to time him doing whatever activity we want.  Most impressively, we rode the bike.  Where Nate earlier refused to go more than a few feet without braking, now he'll get a great head of steam up, the better to shave precious seconds off his time.  He knows that it takes 2:59 to go two blocks down the hill and 3:57 to get back up the hill, for example.  He knows that we can pass 13 trees in two minutes.  And he knows that on Saturday, he rode his bike for two hours and fifteen minutes.  That's right, two hours and fifteen minutes. And you know what that gets you?  A night of a kid who previously never exercised, shouting roughly every hour or so from his bedroom, "my knees!  My legs are hurting!" 

Also, we played a game called "obstacle course," where we take turns giving each other a list of instructions (go up the ladder to the fort; go down the slide; touch the blue ball; run to the clubhouse; etc.) and then time each other doing them.  At least, that's the way it's supposed to work.  Oddly, every time Nate sent me on my first task (run up the mountain as fast as you can), I'd get to the top, and then he'd say, "sorry, I pressed the wrong button; you need to start over." 

Incidentally, while we played this game, Nate got so wrapped up in the timer that he fell off the porch.  You may not know that Nate's favorite book right now is "Baloney (Henry P.)," a tall tale where many of the English words are replaced with alien-sounding foreign ones.  So it didn't seem odd to Nate, though it was very funny to Andrea and me, when, after stumbling from the porch, Nate sobbed, "I fell like an uyarak!" 

Posted by Daddy.

Comments

[sconstant]

Why we didn't think of this sooner, I don't know, but last weekend Daddy went from exercise-resistant to exercise-enthusiast solely by virtue of my agreement to time him doing whatever activity I want. I even got him to repeatedly do his first task (run up the mountain as fast as you can) -- he'd get to the top, and then I'd say, "sorry, I pressed the wrong button; you need to start over."

I am putting Henry P. Baloney on our list.

[Andrea]

Sadly, it took Steve and me the better part of three days to get your joke, sconstant, but now we finally do, and we find it hilarious. Man, having kids has stupided us.