Emotional Life

At seven months of age, Hannah’s emotional life is taking off. She has a budding sense of humor, protests when things don’t go her way, and is really proud of herself when she ‘walks’ with our help.

Just as Hannah has been grappling with these emotions, I’m still grappling with the lack of control over some of mine. I thought it would end after pregnancy, but it seems I can’t watch an episode of Grey’s Anatomy without crying. At least I’m completely unabashed by it now, whereas in the past I would have been squirming, determined not to cry in front of anyone, not even my husband. He looks over at me and comments – Geez, maybe we shouldn’t watch this program – you look drained!

Hannah brings out not only new emotions, but new behaviors, too. We recently discovered (Lord knows how but I’ll credit her Dad) that if we squatted, hands in front of our feet, knees open, and then jumped straight up in the air and ribbitted like a frog, it made Hannah laugh. Really laugh.

Her enjoyment of our undignified display was so infectious she had me, her Dad and two grandparents all jumping and ribbitting in the kitchen. Not sure how this will affect her intellectual and emotional development, but she seemed to enjoy the moment. Actually, it turned out to be a killer quad workout as well…

How is this all relevant to training? Well, all I can say is that if I didn’t have that physical break in the day, where I could carve out some time for myself, I might revert to ribbiting (or moo-ing, baa-ing and quacking) a little too much to feel comfortable in civil society. And, if I couldn’t burn off excess emotional energy by running, biking and swimming, then I might end up crying more often than during Grey’s.

Actually, sometimes swimming makes me want to cry... but that’s a whole other blog.