The Challenge:
Make it through the walk around the block with the little guy and my dog without saying:
Why are you stopping?
Can you hurry up?
Mommy’s ready to make dinner.
I’ve always loved going for walks. When I was pregnant, I would go on long walks with the dog. Sometimes this caused dilemmas. When you are 8-9 months pregnant, you have to use the bathroom a lot. It makes it hard to take that 2-3 mile walk.
When my guy was a baby, we would take the stroller out with the dog and walk to the park by the Mississippi River. I would turn on an audio book (mysteries and thrillers are my favorite) and just enjoy the scenery.
Unfortunately, cute little babies eventually learn how to walk and begin to refuse the stroller. So for the last few years, I’ve found myself taking less and less walks. This year, I vowed that would change.
My little guy has a nickname: Cheddar biscuit. I was stocking my freezer with post-baby meals at Let’s Dish when I mentioned to my friends that I hadn’t decided on a name yet. One friend suggested I name him Cheddar Biscuit. The nickname stuck. Poor guy.
This year the Biscuit is learning to ride his bike. He’s starting to move a little faster and I thought we could start getting a little exercise between him and the dog. The first two times I tried to walk down to the Park. It took 2-3 hours to get back home. So I decided to shorten it to a walk around Poop park. Named mostly because people on my block apparently haven’t heard of doggie waste bags. However as I am writing this, I realize I need to come up with a better name to entice the Biscuit on this adventure.
I mapped this out at .15 miles. In theory, it should take 5 minutes. In Biscuit time it takes at least an hour. My challenge was to take a few breaths and really try to enjoy the walk by looking through his eyes.
The Experience:
I hurt my foot a few weeks ago so put off my challenge/experiment until this last weekend. I started by giving myself a pep talk reminding me of what my challenge was. I decided to try it when I didn’t have to work the next day. It started off really well. I brought my camera to document our first adventure. It was probably a mistake.
We walked about 5 feet and the Biscuit stopped to tell me a story about his shoes and another kid at his daycare. I took a big breath to steady myself and looked down at the Maple tree seeds. I could show him how they fly like a helicopter!!! This was a fun activity and one that he seemed to enjoy. We had races to see whose whirlybird would drop first.
It was interesting to me because what he finds IMPORTANT is definitely different from what I find to be important. In some ways giving him the camera allowed me to experience the world from his view. He came home and sneaked downstairs with the camera. He then took about 20 pictures of our toilet. I didn’t put them up-feel free to thank me!
The Results:
I don’t think I passed the challenge this time. However, just setting the intention of becoming more patient and observant helped make the experience more enjoyable for me AND him. I think it’s something that I can keep working on.
Summer blogger Mom-on-day challenge #2: Fix 2 family meals this week that don’t involve Mac-n-cheese or Peanut butter sandwiches.
L.O.V.E. My son is three and a half, so I can SOOO relate! Last time I tried walking with him and our dog, it took us 45 minutes to go around the block! We live on a pond that’s a one mile loop…I’ve started getting up early just to go around it by myself! BTW, I love the name Cheddar Biscuit! C.B. is an awesome photographer! 🙂
I’m glad it’s not just my kid that it takes forever for walks. I might have to start getting up early too!