5 Ways to Exercise Toddlers (by Guest Author Mike)

We are living in an era bombarded with technological advancements that do not only affect your own lifestyle, but your kid's lifestyle, too. Regarding this, there are so many video games available to toddlers to keep them busy. As a result, healthy exercises are gaining less emphasis. However, there are various ways that can help you teach your toddlers the value of healthy exercises with a lot of fun. Some of them are the following:

1. Going to the Zoo

Take your toddlers to the zoo and try your best that they do not need a stroller. This is because it is better for your toddlers to walk in the zoo as much as possible rather than using a stroller. The zoo is always exciting for kids. Whereas, walking is essential for your toddler's health. So in the zoo, your toddlers will definitely love walking here and there to search and feed their favorite animals.

2. Dancing

Toddlers love to dance when they hear music from your cell phone or whenever they watch a music video on television. It happens many times that your toddler beings to explore his/her own dance steps. Encourage their own steps because they go through a learning phase when they come up with new explorations. Moreover, you can boost their level of confidence by copying their dance steps and dancing with them. You can put aside the toys on the floor and let them dance.

3. Indoor Obstacle Course

If you do not feel comfortable about sending your toddlers out to play due to bad weather conditions, you can still encourage them to be involved in any exercise by creating an indoor obstacle course. Using pillows, bean bags, couch cushions or boxes will be a great idea to make an obstacle course that our toddlers will enjoy going through.

4. Yoga Classes

Check out any local gym near your place. Both you and your toddlers can join the gym together and have yoga classes. Your toddlers can learn basic yoga that is certainly beneficial for their health and fitness. Along with this, there are other children of similar age too, so your toddlers can be friends with them.

Additionally, your toddlers can feel a sense of independence as they will have their own yoga mat, water bottle, and bag. Another advantage of attending yoga classes for them is that they can prepare themselves well in terms of attending more yoga classes in the future.

5. Swimming

Go with your toddler for a swimming class. You and your toddler both can indulge in swimming weekly. Always remember that it is not too early for a toddler to learn swimming. Swimming has its own benefits that can help your toddler enjoy heated water in the winter and cold water in the summer.

Mike is a father of 2, who likes writing about parenting. When he is not blogging, Mike distributes baby toys for a store.

Healthy Body Image

This is a bit personal and not the most ladylike thing to discuss on the internet (unless I'm running a weight-loss blog), however I feel like in this case, it's necessary for the article. So please forgive me. I'm still a bit uneasy that some women write, "Only 2 pounds until I'm back to my original weight - Wooohhooooo!" on their Twitter page. See article on internet etiquette: Classy on the Internet.

I have always had a more naturally voluptuous figure. As a baby I was as chubby as can be (9 lbs when I was born!) and that chubbiness did not go away as I got older. Eventually, the chubbiness just went to my hips and to my breasts. For a long time, despite having the small waist that some women crave, I was suffering with poor body image. Being part Thai, every summer I would go there and would be amongst these Thai girls who were sleek in their figures, almost like ballerinas. Asian girls in general are just naturally slender (Asian men as well).

I would try to lose my curves to look just like the other Thai women by exercising like crazy.

I hope you exercise and eat right to achieve your ideal figure, what you yourself think is a beautiful figure and not what your friends or society thinks is a beautiful figure for you. It's your body and I hope that you take ownership.

Don't aim for the figures that everyone else wants unless you're sure that you yourself want it too. And if you happen to choose a figure that no other women want, be confident in your choice and embrace it.

I personally decided that I wanted a slender, graceful, ballerina-like figure. I wanted to keep my hips curvy and my waist defined, I wanted smaller breasts, and I just wanted to be more slender over all and I wanted to feel lighter. However, unlike Thai women (beautiful as I think they are), I also wanted a toned look. I didn't want to simply look skinny - I wanted to look like I exercised and took care of myself. I wanted my figure to be graceful and I also wanted to look good in cigarette pants.

However, I chose that figure because it's what appealed to me. I wanted to be graceful and look slender and healthy, but I also wanted to be and look strong (that's where my toning workout came in) and I also wanted to keep my hips curvy and fleshy (that's where my waist-defining workout came in). I also wanted a defined collarbone (I have this thing for the neck and collarbone area - I think it's so poetic!). My ideal body shape that I put together in my head didn't fit any cultural standards. I had the hips paired with the slender figure that most Americans (or maybe just American magazines) love, but I decided to opt for small breasts, something that the society would have preferred. I had the slenderness and smaller breasts loved by Thai people, but I chose to keep my hips fleshy and curvaceous, something that Thai girls would never have done.

I think that all women are beautiful in their own unique ways. As long as you are healthy (not overweight and not underweight), and you feel good, and you are proud of your figure, you should be happy with it.

There are many beautiful figures out there that are all different from one another:

Monica Bellucci is proud of her womanly curves. She's a voluptuous woman, but she's also healthy and physically fit (sorry for the vulgarity of the photo - it's the only one that showed her curves). Women like Monica Bellucci and Scarlett Johansson will never have the figure of Audrey Hepburn and the accept that fact and make the most of it.

Courtesy of GQ Russia.

Women like Mary Helen Bowers, Audrey Hepburn, and Zhang Ziyi accept the fact that they will never have curves like a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model and embrace their graceful, ladylike, and willowy figures. Mary Helen Bowers has even used her figure in a career with the prestigious New York Ballet Company and also in a fitness movement that she herself started for women who idolize the figure, grace, posture, and strength of professional ballerinas.

Choose and work towards the figure that makes you feel good and not just the figure that makes you look good in the eyes of society. If you want what society wants, that's fine and be proud of your choice. But no matter what figure you choose, make sure that it is your choice. 

True Elegance is Not In Materialism

Montenegro.

  

When I first decided that I wanted to be an elegant woman, for some reason I felt that my goal could be satisfied through material goods. I was silly (or naive) enough to think that if I got that pair of chic Audrey Hepburn-inspired sunglasses, or that long elegant-looking evening gown, or that lace bra, or those opera tickets, or that vacation in Montenegro, I would be elegant.

Luckily, I soon realized that the things that you can buy can create a veneer, an outward image, of elegance but they can't create true elegance because true elegant stems from the heart.

When I was in high school, I knew a girl who fancied herself to be "classy." She drove a flashy Mercedes sedan (at the age of 16 - can you imagine?), wore flashy designer sunglasses that made her look like a bug, and carried designer purses. She fancied herself classy because of her love of materialism, but she didn't realize that true class is about the way that you treat other people. She dressed herself in name brands and drove the flashiest luxury car out there (quite vulgar in that sense, actually - see my article on the vulgarity of designer brands), but she couldn't string together a sentence that reflected intellectual ability or sophistication/culture and she didn't know how to treat other people with respect and consideration.

It is my hope that the women on this blog pursue a brand of elegance that has more substance than just designer brands. Your ability to spend more money than you have to does not make you elegant.

What makes you elegant is:

• your passion for living
• your consideration for the feelings of others
• your desire to help charities, whether it's by donating money, adopting a child, or volunteering your time at a shelter
• your warmth

I hope that all of your elegant dreams come true and I hope that all of you join me in pursuing an elegance of substance.

Couples as Friends

 On the TV show Mad Men, this minor male character enjoys going horseback riding on weekends with his

fiancée (who he visited multiple times each month when she was a student at Sister School Wellesley College).

Throughout my blog The Proper Lady, something that I seek to do is discuss not only what I believe it means to be an elegant woman, but also what it means to be an elegant woman in certain elegant roles. One of these is the role of the elegant wife.

Something that I've noticed consistently in elegant couples (both married and unmarried) is the deep bond of friendship that is also present. Elegant couples are more than just "lovers" who know how to stare romantically at one another over a candlelit dinner for two. They have a great friendship and shared interests.

 Not all interests have to be shared. John F. Kennedy did not share Jacqueline Kennedy's love of horseback riding and she didn't share his interest in touch football, but they did share an insatiable appetite for good books, a great appreciation for history, a love of sailing and tennis (both of which they did together), and a desire to surround themselves with witty, sophisticated, and intellectual company.

There is nothing wrong with cultivating romance as a couple. I think that it even makes your relationship better if there's some sort of romantic love present (even if it is minor). However, do not let that completely replace friendship and bond. Friendship and compatibility is more important than romantic love if you're going to be together until the ends of your lives. I once read that it's more important to like your romantic partner as a person than it is to love them.

Many of you know that my college degree is in Russian Language and Literature. In my first semester I had the privilege of spending a lot of time with a Russian family in Philadelphia. What I noticed was how close the mother and father were to one another (they were in their late thirties). They acted less like "lovers" and more like best friends who did everything together. They went grocery shopping together, they went to the movies together, they went out to dinner together, they took walks in the park together... after doing some research, I soon learned that this is typical in Russia and in Russian culture. Many of my Russian friends never fail to be shocked when I tell them how separate some American married couples live their lives.

How different from many American families! I think that most single Americans say that they're looking for their best friend when you ask them what they're looking for in a spouse, however once they're married to that "best friend" they have so much of a separate life from one another. I think that it is important to have your own separate hobbies and interests from your spouse because you don't want to be totally dependent on one another, but many American couples seem like they're on separate islands.

I don't think that you should do everything together. How can you remain interesting to one another if everything they can do, you can do as well? However, you should still be involved in one another's lives, at least from a supporter standpoint. He plays tennis but you don't? Why not go watch him and show support at his next match? She enjoys knitting? Why not purchase some knitting magazines for her or start conversations about her work?

Just like it's more important to like your spouse than it is to love them, I think that it's more important to enjoy one another's company and support one another like friends than it is to romance one another like lovers.

A Truly Feminine Appearance

The geisha can be seen as being the paragon of
femininity and feminine appearance.

Throughout this time when I have been doing my best to be as feminine a creature as possible, I have also been trying to uphold a truly feminine appearance.

What is a feminine appearance, exactly?

A truly feminine appearance is one that can simply be described as being opposite from the appearance of a stereotypical masculine male. So what are some aspects of a truly feminine appearance?

Hair styles that are either shoulder-length or longer or have feminine aspects to them if short (like feminine hair accessories). See article: Feminine Hairstyles. The hair should also be healthy, shiny, and with a nice scent.

Perfume (not exactly a part of appearance but it's something physically present that plays with the senses). Many men wear cologne so I would make sure that your perfume is more obviously feminine.

Natural makeup. Caking on a lot of obvious and bright makeup isn't very feminine, as it screams "look at me!" and veers away from the freshness and natural beauty of femininity. See article: Proper Makeup: Emphasizing, Not Hiding or Piling.

Rosy cheeks.

White teeth.

Fluttery lashes.

Pink or tinted lips.

Feminine clothes. With details that most men wouldn't wear, such as polka dots, bold patterns, ruffles, and lace. Think, also, feminine fabrics: lace, chiffon, silk, and satin. Cashmere is another fabric that can bring out your femininity through its softness (although many masculine sweaters are made from it).

Wearing sneakers only when you are exercising. Sticking with heels that are either plain or have feminine details (e.g. bows). Veer away from heels that look harsh or vulgar (too high, platform stilettos, bright neon "stripper" colors, studs, chains, and other things that may remind one of a gladiator).