Beating the couch potato blues

This week, I realized that Wood Sprite has become a couch potato.

I don’t know when it happened! She’s such a physical kid, climbing trees, running and swinging all summer long. But this week when I offered to take her swimming, she said she’d rather watch Once Upon a Time.

Okay… It’s a cool show. Maybe it was a one-time thing. I’d pick Emma’s adventures over chlorine on some days, too. But every day this week, she has seemed to want to sit even more, carefully working on her homemade doll house, building Lego still lives or otherwise hanging out. Even when we played SingStar for our girls’ night, she wanted to sit more than dance!

Uh oh.

It seems like once we get her out of the house, she’s more apt to play—but the cold weather is also getting to her. She hates wearing layers and coats, and she misses the park and outside playing desperately. It’s been the coldest winter of her life; she doesn’t remember how she was able to play outside every week last winter.

I am thinking that she needs more rec center days—basketball with Indy, walking and swimming with the both of us… I also signed her up for some gymnastics days because she’s no longer involved in a weekly program. She liked the gymnastics but didn’t like the fancy posing they had her do. I’d love to do more winter activities but she just isn’t interested, save for occasional ice skating.

What do you do when your family tends to go toward the way of the couch potato?

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia