Knee homework

Pretty much I was on the move before I really opened my eyes this morning. I had scheduled a meeting with Andrew (although in my head I call him Andy because that is how I first met him) so he could have a look at Karaia's knee. He is a great friend of ours and a personal trainer. He went out of his way to see her and we really appreciate it. Thank you, Andy!..er....I mean....Andrew.

We met him at his gym at 8:00am.

Now before we move on, lets just take a moment to fully soak in what that means. That means that me, myself, and I got all four kids ready, three of which had to be ready for school, and out the door in time to be at the gym by 8:00. Which means we actually had to be ready before 8. Technically we didn't pull out of the driveway until 7:51, I was shooting for 7:45, but I will still call it a win.

Andrew had Karaia do all sorts of movements and bends and runs. (While he was working with Andrew the boys were having the time of their life on the indoor soccer court. They talked about it ALL day.) Andrew is more than sharp when it comes to how the body should move to perform at it's best. He noticed right away that her knees, especially the right one, bend in toward each other instead of straight ahead. He said this is very common in girls and can be exaggerated if they have a growth spurt. Well Karaia has grown 1/2 in since the last of November.

He gave us some exercises to do to strengthen all the right muscles and to teach Karaia's body how to bend her knees properly. That means a couple of things for Karaia.

1) NO more sitting with her knees touching the ground with her calves nearly perpendicular to her torso. Yes, it is as painfully looking as it sounds. But it's her preferred method of sitting when on the ground...or a chair...or the couch.

2) More homework after school. I am hoping she will find this fun and not something else to whine at. I am pretty sure I will play the Do-you-really-want-your-knee-to-hurt-like-that-again card if there is too much whining.

Hopefully, this will fix the problem and we won't have to investigate any further.

We did all this and STILL got the kids to school on time.

It was a January miracle.