What we do for our kids

'Twas a day to end all days. A birthday party at the zoo this morning and a kids' music festival at a local nightclub in the afternoon. Five hours on my feet, lots of kid-wrangling, and total body exhaustion. It's a feeling not unlike how I felt at the end of my first marathon, minus the chafing.

The zoo was a lot of fun - a great place for a kid's birthday party. They provide goodie bags, a guided tour of some of the animal exhibits, and a fully set-up room. I'm a big fan of the birthday party made easy route. The concert? Well, it was the fifth circle of hell. Imagine a club that holds 1,200 people. Now pack roughly twice that in the room (or at least that's what it seemed like). Each family had roughly 24 inches of space, so DOM spent the majority of the show sitting on my shoulders. Throw in some costumed performers and the closest thing to the Beatles in kid's music, no lunch, and a start time that coincided with nap time, and you have a recipe for disaster. We left early.

However, one thing I found is that all the yoga and running I have been doing has really helped. I don't think I could have lasted as long as I did on my feet and with her on my shoulders without regular yoga (a great shoulder/back/neck strengthener) and without my runs. I just have to remember that at 5:30 Monday morning.