Walking with Babies

When Amelia was a few months old, despite the fact that she screamed her lungs out every time I put her in the car seat or stroller, we walked around and around the neighbourhood.  One elderly gentleman leaned on his rake as I passed by and exclaimed, "That has GOT to be the MOST walked baby on Earth!" But Cole was far more walked than Amelia.  I walked Cole so much that when Amelia was only a week old, the stroller I'd used for her older brother just gave up the goat and lost a wheel half-way across the intersection of Fairview and Woodview.

With two kids, walking is much more of an adventure. Here's the walking adventure we had this morning:

I wrestled Amelia into a fleece snow suit and Cole into his sweater as they both protested. I had an errand to run - yogurt and prunes from the Metro.  I rolled the double stroller out of the garage, the creaky one I'd scored at Once-Upon-a-Child. Cole was still yelling that he didn't want to go. 

"You can take Echo the robot," I suggested.

"NO!"

"Okay.  I'll let Amelia pick her seat. Maybe she wants to sit in the front..."

"No, I want to sit in the front...." and with that he raced out the door.

I must have looked a sight, with sleep-tousled hair, a zombie-like daze on my face and two hooded kids in tandem in front of me. I was leaning into the stroller both to use my weight to propel it into motion and to hold myself upright.

We raced through the grocery store, all too aware of the time-bomb that is Amelia stirring in the stroller. And when we arrived at the cash register I pulled out my wallet, flipped it open, only to find my debit card and credit card weren't there.  The moment I saw the empty spots, I knew I had no cash and no other way to pay for the groceries.  I also knew that my cards were tucked in the front left pocket of the jeans I'd worn yesterday, probably in the hamper heap in our bedroom.

I apologized to the cashier and then I zoomed around the store returning the items to their respective spots. As we left the store, Amelia began to fuss more loudly than before.

We got home and I ran into the house, got my cards and made the decision to risk it all and attempt a second trip to the grocery store.  Back to the store we went. Back down the aisles collecting yogurt and prunes. Back to the same cashier. This time with money. We paid. And as we were just leaving the store, I looked down and Amelia was asleep.

Bless her heart - my baby never sleeps in the stroller. So we took the long way home around the block.  As we approached our house, I decided to convince Cole to go on a longer walk so I didn't have to wake Amelia.  I suggested we walk to the creek bridge. No sooner had he agreed than Amelia woke up.

So we hurried along the bumpy side walk to the creek bridge, hoping Amelia wouldn't decide to revolt against the confinement of the stroller until our trip home.

We watched the water rippling over the rocks for a few moments then we turned around and went home.

We got home and I unloaded Cole from the stroller when he noticed that Echo the robot was missing. So, of course, we had to strap back into the stroller and retrace our steps.

Echo was at the creek bridge and all was well.  But I had to walk home, past the same construction workers I'd greeted three times already, with Amelia in one arm and Cole happily clutching Echo in the other.