Who needs a gym?

Who needs a hobby or a project? Who needs a gym? Who has the time?! 

I remember the days when Clayton was a tiny swaddled bundle of baby fat and soft bones that lay still. He cried through the night, suffered with reflux and liked to be held too often, but at least he was still. I remember wishing he would do more and people telling me to be patient and cherish those days; that it would only get harder when he was moving around. How I laughed at them... oh how I wish I hadn't. 

Little man is in the early stages of walking and almost every day is a new milestone. He toddles happily across the room now, just to trash a different part of it. He half walks, falls and then crawls the rest of the way just to put the phone charger in his mouth that you forgot to unplug from the mains. He drops his drink on the floor to distract you and whilst you're clearing it up, he is halfway up the stairs before you know it. I spend my days dashing from here to there, bending, lifting and sweeping. I feel old. I feel beat up. I feel tired. 

Clayton, in the early stages of figuring movement out, is already impatient. He hates to sit still and is desperate to be on the move even more than he already is. I look forward to and dread all at the same time the day that he figures out how to run. The day he learns that he can cause chaos with the same efficiency but at twice the speed. It won't be long.

I find myself spending any down time that I get staring blankly and daydreaming whilst consuming caffeine in a zombie like state. I'll be sat, my brain melting to fudge, watching baby TV when I could be watching anything I wanted just because that's easier than finding the remote control that he could have hid anywhere. And then once I've gathered my thoughts and recap on the days events, I can't help but sit and smile at all the funny things Clayton did that day and sit proudly of how well he is advancing. That's the beauty of parenting... it's tough, it's tiring, but the rewards are so great that as much as we sometimes need to vent and complain, we wouldn't have it any other way.