When we lived in Del Ray (Alexandria, VA), we routinely took evening walks through the neighborhood to The Dairy Godmother, Cheesetique, or another local haunt, or just to enjoy the evening. We also would walk the other direction to Target, Old Navy, the grocery store or Barnes & Noble on the weekends. In Oklahoma, people don't really walk to businesses. The set up of most areas doesn't promote it. Our particular housing edition, until recently, had no sidewalks leading out of the edition to anywhere. Recently, however, they have been expanding the width of Penn (the main road outside our edition) and along with the expansion came the arrival of sidewalks which inspired us to try to walk to get ice cream this evening like in days of old. (Granted, the nearest ice cream places are Sonic, Berrilicious and Braums).
We loaded M into our old annoying stroller* and the rest of us set off on foot. The adults had serious doubts about B making it there and back on foot and a few concerns about if the mythical sidewalk was actually complete enough to get to any of the ice cream spots. We decided to give it a shot. We took turns being the "leader" and singing "We're following the leader" (obviously). We played different parts of a train (engine, coal car, oil car, caboose). There was some running and some dawdling. We eventually came upon one small segment of sidewalk outside the next edition that needed to be completed and had to work around that. Luckily, the near lane of traffic is still closed for road construction so it was a bit easier. With Sonic in sight and very close by, the sidewalk ended as we had feared. It was very close, maybe only a lot or two so we cut across the grass stroller and all as you can't leave your trooper of a red faced little boy with no treat after making it all that long way (probably nearly a mile--- 3/4 of a mile at least).
I was amazed he made it the whole way on his own power. We let him order whatever he wanted and everyone shared. He was quite generous with his Strawberry shake and only ate a few of his second round order of cheese tater-tots. M tried everything and sat happily up on the table to observe the scene. Two small girls arrived with their Dad to celebrate the younger girl's fourth birthday. B was COMPLETELY distracted by them. He kept watching and trying to follow them on their escapades (hanging from signs and such). Brent tried to explain he had the rest of his life to be distracted by girls and needed to eat now. Eventually, I began to worry about sunset and we headed back.
The trek back was, as usual, more difficult. Brent pushed M while I helped encourage B along. We hopped, jumped, skipped, ran, tried going sideways, hopping on one leg and many things in between. (I had recently read this awesome post and just gave in to the joy of the moment with B and thought not at all about how crazy I probably looked to the people in their cars). Eventually, we were close to our housing edition and I seized on the promise of stopping by the pond. This along with the various games kept us going. B told me he needed to take his shoes off, his feet were tired, he threw some rocks, meandered and we continued on. The last two blocks were slow and B was pretty red, but
HE MADE IT
He walked the whole way. There and back. On his own power. No tears, very minor complaint. Such an amazing little boy and an amazing family walk. We're glad to be a family whose Friday night adventure is exploring our own neighborhood together -- on foot even. Love it. So happy.
*I have disliked the stroller nearly from the outset. I just can't decided on/face paying for another one. At the moment. I'm lusting after this one and suppose I should just take the plunge.
** Yes, we again did not have a camera with us as it was a bit spur of the moment randomness. Must remember next time as this was a perfect family moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment