Our two year old son has entered the stage of copying pretty much everything that we do and say. He will even mimic our tone of voice and facial expressions. In so doing he does a great job keeping us in check because we do not want to do or say something that would be inappropriate for our son to do or say.
In recent weeks our son has taken to mimicking my workout moves. He tries to do jumping jacks, butt kicks, sit ups, plank exercises, free weight exercises (with or without the weights and sometimes using toys as weights), lunges, etc. On occasion he will even get his own yoga mat and set of free weights (I have a pair of pink two pounds weights that he has claimed as his own). He only does a few repetitions of each move but he does his best to do exactly what I am doing even though his form is not quite correct. In the midst of the workout I often look down at him to see that he has a huge grin on his face as he “eckercises” with me. His attempts to workout with me is so darn cute! He seems like such a little guy exercising next to me.
Since I workout almost everyday, he is certainly used to my routine and knows that when I put on my tennis shoes and workout clothes that I am going to exercise. He will look at me and say in his sweet little boy voice, “Are you going to eckercise mommy?”. Today he even changed into his own little tennis shoes to workout with me. Of course I do not expect him to exercise with me but it is really sweet of him to want to share in my daily exercising ritual. Perhaps I am sowing the seeds for my little guy to be a fit guy when he is a big guy!