Stop me if you've heard this statistic before. The average
office worker spends 10 hours a day in a sedentary position. By the way, that
statistic encapsulates all of that time at the desk in the office as well as
anytime sitting at home in front of the TV or what have you. You scared yet?
Honestly, it doesn't shock me. I mean, by the end of my
gainful employment, I did have a stand-up desk available for my use. However,
if I'm being totally honest, I probably used it for a max of a couple of hours
each day. The rest of the time was spent sitting in my nice desk chair with a
moderate recline working as I watched the hours tick away. That's probably one
of the biggest differences between my old job as a Client Operations Specialist,
Associate II (at least I think that was my title when I left) and my current
job of Manager at Holt Stay-at-Home Dad Enterprises.
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| If you claim you've never done this, you're lying... |
I bring up this whole sitting concept mostly because it's a
rarity that Ellie wants to sit for very long at all. Seems relatively normal
for a toddler right? Well, be prepared to be shocked as I have a nice little
story for you that actually involves Ellie sitting down!
For you to get the concept behind said story, I simply have
to say one word: sledding (or sledge if you're British). That's right,
Thursday, January 18th, 2018 will go down in history as the very first time
Ellie went sledding.
With the weather being in the 40's and both Ellie and I
suffering from yet another onslaught of cabin fever, the time was right for us
to head outside and enjoy the last of the snow before it was gone. Of course, don't
think for a moment that getting Ellie prepped to play in the snow by oneself is
an easy task. For a good comparison, I liken it to Rocky training to fight Apollo Creed by trying to catch chickens.
First of all, one has to manage to catch/corner/corral the
baby who is on the move constantly. Then, you must somehow figure out how to
guide her legs inside of her snow pants. Realistically, you should get this on
about the third try or you're doing something wrong. Once the snow pants are
on, then it's time to add the boots. That being said, don't make the mistake of
setting the baby down or she'll be gone again. After that, it's time to add the
coat (which is relative child's play by this point), followed by the hat and
gloves. Then it's time to play outside!
For me, playing outside with Ellie was self-serving. In my
eyes, I could let her burn off some energy while I cleaned off our front steps
and driveway after the last snow. After a few minutes of working with the snow
shovel, it was clear Ellie wanted to be a part of anything and everything I was
doing. With that information in hand, I chose to only clean the stairs and
Bethany's side of the driveway before turning my attention to Ellie.
Following that, I made a beeline for the garage and grabbed
both sleds that had been waiting inside for the perfect weather. I first chose
to test out the Snowslider with Ellie. My thought was that I could easily sit
Ellie down on the near 4 foot sled and pull it around the yard. Of course,
there were two problems in doing so: If I trudged along too upright, Ellie
would fall over backwards and if I bent over too much, my back would ache. See,
it was a real Sophie's choice. Needless to say, after a few minutes of trying,
I decided I had an unwinnable situation with the Snowslider.
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| So much speed... |
It was then that I chose to turn to the classic round disc
sled. There was still one problem though since I didn't have anything to pull
it with. Therefore, I had to instead get down in the snow on my hands and knees
and alternate pushing Ellie around the yard with spinning her around like a
top. Finally after about ten minutes of playing on the sled, Ellie decided she
had enough and retreated back inside the open garage door, calling it a day. Honestly, I wasn't too saddened by that decision as the wet knees of my jeans had begun to make my legs pretty cold.
I guess the moral of the story is that like an adult in the
workplace, my child is capable of sitting still when the situation calls for
it. And unlike said adult in the workplace, my child's ability to sit still is
only for ten minutes at a time. That's a start though. #DaddyWrite
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