« | Main | More adventures in potty training »
March 19, 2005
Yesterday I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous weather (60 degrees, sunny) by loading up the kids in the wagon and going on a hike. Originally I was going to wait until after Zeke's nap, but after the third time I went into his room to re-settle him and tell him he needed to lie down and sleep, I thought, what am I doing? It's beautiful outside, the sun is shining for the first time in days if not weeks, and Zeke doesn't even look tired. So I asked if he'd rather take a nap or go on a walk, and of course he said he wanted to go on a walk.
So we loaded up the backpack and some drinks (sippy cup with water for Stazi; Capri Sun for Zeke) and set off. There's a park with a playground about a mile and three quarters from our house, and I optimistically thought it might be a nice jaunt and some good exercise for me. As it turned out, I was not wrong, although we did have to stop at a convenience store halfway there to buy more water because Stazi had carefully dumped hers out into the bottom of the wagon, where it combined with the updumped baggie of Cheerios to form a glue-like Cheerio slurry that I am considering marketing to construction companies as an excellent alternative to concrete.
Anyway. We reached the park without much hassle, although I do have to say that the lack of wheelchair-accessible (and therefore stroller and wagon-accessible) intersections here in urban Columbus is extremely annoying. There are very few of those nice curb ramps, so I did a lot of hefting the wagon up and down over curbs. But it was probably good for me, so I shouldn't complain too much.
At the playground, there was one other little girl there. She was about 6, or so her Oma told me, and Zeke bonded with her instantly. They started playing a chasing game where she'd run, and he'd chase after her, and then she'd stop and let him catch up, and then he'd hide behind a tree and she would chase him, and so forth. They had great fun. Stazi was content to sit and watch this unfold from her perch in the baby swing.
After about half an hour, the little girl and her Oma had to go home, and I started getting the kids ready as well. I wanted to give Zeke a chance to go to the potty, because it had been awhile since we'd left the house, but unfortunately we discovered that the park bathrooms were locked. So... Zeke peed in a pile of leaves. He thought it was awesome and started yelling at the top of his lungs, "I PEED IN LEAVES! I PEED IN LEAVES, MOMMY!" Luckily, there weren't too many other people around.
The trip home was also uneventful, although I did discover a three-block-long trail of Cheerios that Stazi had apparently thrown out of the wagon on the trip to the park. Then we got home and I fell asleep on the couch with Stazi while Zeke finally took a nap. It was not a bad day, all things considered.
Posted by Jan at March 19, 2005 10:46 AM