Thursday, September 21, 2006

Toddler sag wagon

The first day of fall was gorgeous here and after I got home from work we all went for a walk, as we often do. Going for a walk is just short of a major event around our house. It's me, Paul, M., C. and the dogs. That may not seem like much on the surface but then the boys both need to bring a stroller to push. The strollers we have are Graco doll strollers purchased at Toys R Us and they are, without a doubt, the best $9.99 each that we have ever spent where the kids are involved. Of all the toys in the house those strollers are the only things that are played with every single day. They are used to transport cars, trucks, toys and sometimes little brothers all throughout the house and neighborhood. M. is actually on his second stroller because last week a wheel finally gave up the fight and fell off the first stroller. If you've got kids and they don't have a Graco stroller, get one. The other cool thing about them is that they're made in a very gender neutral pattern- the new one is red and grey and they cool just like the real ones.

Anyway, back to the walk. The boys both have a stroller, the dogs need their leashes and we need at least 4 bags for poop-scooping over the course of the walk. I follow along with the double jogging stroller to act as the toddler sag wagon. We walk at an agonizingly slow pace, one mile takes us anywhere from 30 minutes if the boys are running, to an hour. C. is especially slow and easily distracted along the way. In his defense he's only 20 months old and I don't know many other 20 month old kids that can regularly cover 1-2 miles under their own power. I'm pretty sure that at the same age M. wasn't doing nearly the same amount of walking. We try to cut him some slack for that but it still gets a little frustrating when it's 5 minutes between mailboxes. Then he'll decide he wants to ride for a while. A while being about 25 seconds and then he's down again. The boys will start racing strollers and then it becomes a crash derby for a while until C. is once again distracted by something else. Kodi is always the first of the dogs to poop and Paul usually teases M. that it's his turn to pick up the poops. There are some things that M. has a sense of humor about, picking up dog poop is not one of those topics. Whenever a car comes by the kids sit on the curb and wait until it's gone by before we move along again. We're lucky to live in a relatively quiet neighborhood where we can go for great walks as a family. While it sometimes seems frustratingly slow we're lucky to have 2 boys that really enjoy spending time outside and it's quality time that we're all together. It sure beats sitting on the couch in front of the TV.

1 comment:

m said...

Anything is better than tv. It will get better when the kids are older. I have my two oldest ride their bikes w/me when I do a 3 mile run. The third loves the jogging stroller runs (though I detest them).

Good luck on tri training! I would love to compete in a tri-sprint, but lack the time dedication (I can't possibly get up at 4 am)