Pilates, baby edition

I was a big pilates fan back before I met Dan, and it's one of those things I go back to now and then when I'm feeling motivated. Well, I've been feeling mighty motivated lately, so I've been using my morning time with Abby to do the quick version of the video I used to watch. 'Course it becomes a whole 'nuther experience when Abby decides this is just the most hilarious thing she's ever seen and she just has to get involved.

I lie down to do the first exercise--the 100, which you do flat on your back with your legs straight up in the air--and suddenly I'm Abby's speed bump for her to walk on.

I move on to the roll-up, which starts flat on the back and involves slowly sitting up and reaching for your toes and then slowly going back to your back, all without bending your legs or lifting them off the floor. Abby sits at my feet, and instead of reaching for my toes, I reach for that tubby baby belly and thighs and tickle her, and she laughs that wonderful baby laugh that motivates me to do just one more...

Then on to the leg lifts where you lie flat back and trace capital D's in the air with your toes, but I'm tracing some funky cursive letters trying to avoid kicking Abby in the head as she steps over the leg that is still on the floor.

She finally tires of me and my leg-waving shenanigans and takes off for the other end of the room, so I manage to squeeze in the rest of the exercises on my back without any issues. But then I roll to my side for the "side leg series" (my favorite part of the Windsor pilates exercise videos--can I get an Amen from anyone who's tried it?) and it's a new game for Abby. She's grabbing my leg and "petting" my hair and flopping herself over my body while I try to count out leg lifts. I'm working out muscles I didn't know I had trying to keep my balance and (again) not kick Abby in the head (which works most of the time).

And by the time I'm finally done, my t-shirt is soaked, not in sweat but baby drool, my hair is a ratty mess from little hands playing beauty salon, and the stomach and butt muscles I haven't felt in a year and a half are screaming their names. Rather than the ten minutes it used to take, it's a twenty-minute (at least) endeavor. But I'm just going to assume those extra minutes of rolling on the floor with a giggly wiggly Abby are burning some calories, too.