Saturday, February 04, 2012

Warm winter

swinging by allisonandmatt
swinging, a photo by allisonandmatt on Flickr.

Like many others in different parts of the country, we're experiencing an especially mild winter here. Most of the last two weeks, the afternoon temps have reached well into the 60s. That's allowed us to do things like have Matt meet us at a favorite frozen yogurt shop on his way home from work, then jaunt over to a nearby park. There Lauren enjoyed her first time in a swing. Both brothers enjoyed pushing her, resulting in so many squeals and giggles from all the kids. Evan's time was necessarily, um, limited because he didn't quite oblige our requests to push gently. Tobin did a great job, patiently and happily pushing her for a full 10 minutes or so. Of course, she liked it even better when Mama did the pushing so Tobin could stand in front of her and make silly faces and sounds.

With the warm afternoons, I've also ventured out on walks with all three kids by myself. I feel like I should do this more, but it seems like quite the undertaking so I've previously used chilly temps as an excuse to not go out. The difficulty is primarily a logistical one. We're hoping to get a double jogger soon, but right now we just have a single stroller. Evan, at two and a half, is often too unpredictable to walk beside while I push Lauren in the stroller. He does well sometimes, but a good portion of the path we use is along a busy road and I fret about him suddenly deciding to do his own thing and darting toward the road. He is quite the dawdler, so if I have any intention of walking at a reasonable pace, I need him in the stroller. But I also want him to be able to run and explore along with his brother, and he naturally gets impatient riding in the stroller after a while. So what I've ended up doing is carrying Lauren in the ergobaby carrier and Evan in the stroller for the first part of our walk on the path adjacent to the busy road.

The second half of our walk is along a more secluded part of the trail, where I feel comfortable letting Evan out of the stroller to run along with Tobin. And then I put my sweet 20-pound baby girl in the stroller. (What our walks lack in pace, I figure I make up in the effort of carrying her while pushing Evan!) On the leisurely remainder of our walk, we stop to let the boys throw rocks in a creek and take a break on a bench, where they enjoy the snack I've packed for them. Tobin often uses this opportunity to pee on a tree. I remind him to go pee before we leave the house, but half the time he forgets and I'm too distracted by getting the other kids out the door that alas he really does need to go. And anyway, who am I to deny my boy the apparent pleasure of peeing outside?

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