Take, for example, the lovely family walk we took on Monday. The weather was gorgeous!
Leah: Mom, what are we doing after supper?
I'll admit, I inwardly sighed because I knew there was going to be a barrage of questions.
Me: We are going for a walk! It's so nice outside!
Leah: Can I ride my bike?
Me: No, we are going for a walk. All together. As a family.
Leah: I really like riding my bike with Dad, though.
Me: Yep. And you can totally do that another time.
Gracie overhears and has some questions of her own!
Gracie: Mommy, can we walk to the gas station?!
She says "gas station" in a fun, excited voice :)
Me: Sorry, honey, but there's still snow on the ground and it's really wet. We have to cut through a field to get to the gas station, so we have to wait until the snow is gone.
Gracie: I like to go to the gas station so I can get fish.
By "fish," she means Swedish Fish, not the healthy fish you get out of bodies of water that have healthy omega 3 fatty acids...she likes the high fructose corn syrup variety.
Me: Yep. We can get those another time, but we're just going to go for a walk.
Maggie naturally needs some clarification.
Maggie: Where are we going to walk then?
Being incredibly concrete as many children are, my girls have to have some sort of destination/purpose when going on a walk. They can't handle the thought of walking just to, you know, enjoy the day.
Me: We are going to walk to the corner right after our friend's house and then turn around and walk back. We might even cross the street and walk back on the other side of the road.
Maggie: Which one is our friend's house?
Me: It's the big white one right past your school.
Maggie: My school!?!?! Can we play on the playground?
Me: Not this time. It's really wet, and I don't think we want to go for a walk in snow pants and boots when it's so nice out. We can do that another time, though!
Leah: Do we have to wear coats?
Me: Yes. It's nice out, but not that nice out.
Maggie: Do I have to walk on the sidewalk?
Me: When there is a sidewalk, you have to walk on it.
Gracie: Why do I have to walk on a sidewalk?
Our street (and the few leading up to it) don't have sidewalks, and we live on a really quiet dead end. The whole sidewalk and traffic thing are concepts the girls (especially Gracie) just cannot grasp.
On another note, I feel like the girls would make great investigative journalists...
Me: I want you to be safe, and the street that Maggie's school on is pretty busy. You need to stay on the sidewalk and hold hands when you cross the street.
Gracie: I like to hold hands.
Whew!
We ate dinner, and when we were done, Aaron gathered the girls around and gave them a recap of all of the questions I answered so they knew what to expect. He's a lot better at remembering to do that than I am :)
Anyway, we had a great walk!
Let me rephrase that...Aaron and I had a great walk, while the girls thoroughly enjoyed what could only be considered interval training.
They ran to a certain landmark (like a fire hydrant, speed limit sign, corner, etc.) and would stop and wait for us to catch up. Then they'd run to the next landmark!
Gracie would stop occasionally and do this...
...with her hand. I don't know what that was all about, but it was seriously adorable!
Speaking of seriously adorable:
When we got back into our little neighborhood, we saw our friends taking a walk and talked with them for awhile!
The girls were playing in the little river...aka freshly melted snow!
Leah even made a little boat
and let it set sail in the open waters!
Naturally, the girls ran all the way home, and slept reeeeeeeally well that night!
Oh, they even stepped in some really sticky mud and nobody cried! Yahooooooo!!!
Do you have any questions for me about going for a walk? I'm quite good at answering them :)
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