The Evening Walk

I'm not complaining.  At all.  I'm just stating the obvious when it comes to raising 2 small children, and the challenges we face, even with the smallest stuff like our evening walk.  Ava is AMAZING on her bike now.  She learned to ride 2 wheels a few weeks ago, and now races down the street, coasts along with her legs out to the side, and brakes real fast leaving skid marks on the road!  Tonight she was racing (and beating) the 4th grader up the street.  I could not be happier for her.  She is crazy excited that she can ride a big girl bike and I know she loves the freedom it brings.  I loved riding my bike too when I was her age.

So now our evening walk around the neighborhood goes like this...Cameron is on a push bike.  He can't quite reach the pedals on his tricycle.  The push bike is S-L-O-W.  He also stops every 5 feet to tell or show me something.  Ava is way ahead on her bike, but without sidewalks, we are in the street and I'm a nervous wreck.  While her balance is great on her bike, her judgment is not.  She rides on the side of the road, but then realizes she is too far ahead and takes a huge turn back, turning right into the middle of the street without looking.  The evening walk around our loop takes forever.  It's great for the kids and for me to be outside.  We stop at the stream, often see frogs and snakes, throw sticks and stones in the water.  All good.  But it's a challenge to have one kid so far behind, and the other one riding 1/2 mile ahead without a care in the world.