Sanity

Ever since I had our youngest, I have started to walk daily again. To many this might not be much, but for me it is a lot. It ranges from 1.5 miles to 4 miles, depending on who is with me and how they are behaving…
Usually it is me, our middle child and our dog.

At first, I would meet my parents at the local park with their dogs and off we would go. It is a sense of therapy for me, and sets my day of right. We would drop off our oldest at school and then  press on to the park. Nice, calm walks, then come back home for naps and the rest of the household. I wouldn’t see the dog afterwards until dinner time haha. Then came summer break, so our oldest walked with us.

Now, anyone that has a 6 year old knows, one day they are perfect little angels happy to actually walk along and on the next day they are slow as can be and keep asking ‘are we done yet?’. The later has been the case lately. So usually I try to leave her at home with the husband, or she walks a small round with whoever else is the lucky victim ;).

Well lately we have been going to the Chattahooche River to walk, this is a fantastic trail and you can run, walk or ride your bike. So after going a couple of times I convinced the husband to go with me and our oldest could just go on her bike. Great solution and everyone would get their work out in. In theory, that is.

You see, our oldest is petrified of riding her bike, she loves the idea, but having to actually do it is a whole new level.  She gets very quite and has sweaty palms and honestly I think she could pass out eventually. Now I have to be honest, I am the same way when I get put in situations I don’t like but that aside. So getting her on the bike needed some persuasion, and then trying to tell her it will be ok while she is holding on for dear life is a whole different story.

Riding a bike is pretty much a necessity when you live in Holland. You ride them from early on and when you are too little you ride with your mom/dad/babysitter/grandpa/grandma on the front or on the back.  So you get used to the motion. I know I should have put her on a bike A LOT sooner… So now, partially to my own mistake, she is a 6 year old ‘riding’ a bike with training wheels. No clue on how to make her feel more comfortable with it, just know I got to keep trying…

Anyways, other than that, the walk was great, hot as can be, but just happy to enjoy some nature. Unfortunately, you don’t have that many places to enjoy it anymore.  Our middle one just loves to sit and see people and dogs. Yells to the occasional squirrel,  but sits and hums’ his own songs.  Our youngest falls asleep and just snoozes away, really doesn’t have an opinion about anything yet hihi.

Next time we will leave the bike at home, maybe she will enjoy a simple walk. Try the bike in a couple more days. On our way back to the car, we managed to save a turtle so that made her day, and she forgot all about her fear of the bicycle.

Until next time, Peace and Chicken Nuggets!