These shoes are made for running...

The difference between being 33 and 3 is that the response to someone who says "I'm going running," aged 33 is "Good for you!". When you're 3 it's "Can I come too? Please!"

I'm not sporty. PE lessons at school pretty much put me off sport for life. Nothing to do with the teachers/teaching, and everything to do with communal changing rooms, teenage girls, and self-consciousness.

Since pregnancy #2, the ligaments in my lower back are permanently weakened. That's the bad news. The good news is that since my osteopath did his thing, I am pretty much pain-free, and although my ligaments are no longer to be trusted, as long as I keep my core muscles strong then they compensate accordingly. So, the silver lining to the cloud of having to pay much more attention to my body than I used to is that as a result I am substantially fitter. I have to make exercise a part of my life in a way it never was before. This can only be a good thing, as hopefully my kids will see that as 'the norm' and perhaps be more likely to continue to enjoy exercise. I don't come from a sporty background at all, and I do wonder whether it is nature or nurture that made me a 'not sporty' type...

But then I look at my kids and think, surely nature doesn't make 'not sporty' types? Because they, like pretty much every preschooler I know, love physical activity - my 14 month old spends his life in search of things to climb, and my 2 year old loves running (okay, often away from me) and jumping (yes, often in puddles). At what point do we lose that? Is it just about developing a sense of self and the self-consciousness that goes along with that? Or is that some days, getting two small kids ready, dressed and down the park seems such a huge effort that it's easier to stick on Cbeebies and pray they sit engrossed while you try and drink just one cup of tea before it's tepid? Because looking after two small kids is sometimes so knackering that you don't have enough energy of your own to help them use up theirs? Is that the start of a slippery sedentary lifestyle slope?

Fear not though, for the healthy living/active lifestyle is already promoted to 2 year olds via your TV! In fact the Government teamed up with kids' programme LazyTown last autumn to launch its own Change4Life programme aimed at 2-5 year olds. For those unfamiliar with LazyTown, it promotes healthy lifestyle choices via its hero Sportacus and the characters who live in the eponymous town. (There's a kid called Pixel who needs to be prised from his computer to exercise, fruit is 'Sports Candy', you get the gist - though I'm not sure anyone's fooled by that 'Sport Candy' idea. It's actually quite fun to watch, and less preachy than it sounds.) But then as adults, most of us know about healthy living and sensible choices, and the trend is still towards a state of increasing obesity.

Perhaps it makes sense then that the Government thinks we can't be trusted to make the right choices. Yet I have very mixed feelings about the school weigh-ins for kids, or "The National Child Measurement Programme" to give it its full title. My eldest will fall due for it at some point next year. I have the right to withdraw my child from it, and I am yet to decide if I will exercise that right. I view it as my responsibility to keep my kids healthy, and a long line of children being weighed, measured and recorded in schools strikes me as an image belonging more to a totalitarian state than the country I thought I lived in. But perhaps that is my naivety...

Regardless, I am trying hard to incorporate exercise into my life, and hopefully as well as keeping me pain-free it does set a good example. And so I've started the 'Couch to 5K', or 'C25K', 9 week running programme. Hence the pleading requests at bedtime from my daughter who would love to come with me... even in the drizzle. Meanwhile I try and remember the words of Phoebe from friends: "I run like I did when I was a kid because that's the only way it's fun".

1 week down, 8 to go and then we'll see if I actually am running 3 miles in 30 mins...

Water, water everywhere but only squash to drink

Parenting hey? There's so many things to keep track of, so many areas you can fall down... Let's start with the basics: food and water. Keeping the kids fed so they can do that all-important growth and development, and keeping them hydrated, so that, well, they don't die...

We know what they recommend, kids should drink water, and not have squash or juice. And if they do have juice, make sure you dilute it, one part to 10! And only at mealtimes! And brush their teeth straight after!

Getting my daughter to drink water is an ongoing battle. Now, let's not call it a battle, as that implies it's something more combative than it is. And you don't want combative, as then it starts being all about the parent-child power-struggle, and not about whatever it is that it started off being about... what was that again? Oh yes, water.

So my 2-heading-for-3 year old has never liked drinking water. We introduced squash - very, very dilute - probably around her first birthday, or a bit before, as she was poorly, getting dehydrated and no, she wasn't drinking water when she was thirsty. She's stubborn like that. I don't know if she'd actually starve herself and all the sort of things they say kids won't/shouldn't, but boy is she stubborn. (Part of me thinks I should be imposing my parental will and breaking that stubborn streak/spirit, but the bigger part of me doesn't want to parent like that. The part that thinks I should is more to do with how I think people think I should be parenting - perceived or imagined social pressure. And I don't think drinking squash is the end of the world, much as I would prefer her to be drinking water at least some of the time. I have other battles to pick, I'm not short on them!) Anyway, we introduced the squash and getting her liquid intake around where it should be hasn't been a problem since.

Of course, when child 2 comes along, child 1 is drinking this lovely squash. And he's too small now to have much choice in what he drinks, but he's had squash at an earlier age still, thanks to his big sister's generous sharing.

We're still trying to crack the water problem, in terms of getting Big Sis to drink that rather than squash. She's obsessed with orange squash. Rock's Orange Squash, to be precise. Blardy Tesco stopped selling Rock's Lemon Squash, which in my humble opinion was far superior. Thankfully Big Sis has taken to the orange variant.

(Oh yeah, something else to beat oneself up about - have you noticed how many of these "No Added Sugar" squashes have aspartame in? Aimed squarely at kids in the main, and yet that sweetener seems to be highly questionable, or at least questionable enough that if I can avoid it without going to too much effort, I will. Hence ending up with Rocks, which is basically sugar, juice/zest, and water.)

Things we've tried to get our older child to drink water, with varying degrees of success, include:

* Introduce a straw - fun to drink with, fun to spray water everywhere with
* Introduce a 'grown-up glass' - and watch mummy stress out about safety
* Introduce ice-cubes - they may not drink the drink, but they'll probably suck/eat the ice (and watch mummy stress out about choking risks)
* Set an example by drinking water in front of them - not tea, not coffee, not beer! This is the one that has probably been most successful (and least messy!) for us. And who couldn't do with drinking more water? (Yes, I'm sure those extra pounds are water-retention and not cake retention, definitely no question...)

I know in the grand scheme of things, it's not as if they're drinking Special Brew... But if I didn't have something to be fretting about, I wouldn't be happy, as my other half says.

Such is the nature of motherhood. I can't be the only one who was hit by the 'overwhelming rush of anxiety' before the 'overwhelming rush of love' upon becoming a mother, surely?