Stroll with the Kiddos

On Monday, the kids and I took advantage of the nice weather and went for a stroll outside.  I really wanted to get Baylor walking, so I strapped Mollie to my chest with the Ergo Baby and away we went.

Usually when we go on our walks, we count the fire hydrants in our neighborhood, but Baylor has recently figured out that we only have four (in the sidewalked areas, anyway) so it's not that much of a thrill anymore.  So I decided to up the ante, and we counted mailboxes!  It was a bit trying at times since he kept wanting to count ahead, but I tried very hard to encourage him to only count mailboxes once we'd actually walked past them.  It worked about 10% of the time.

Baylor gave something new a try while we were on our walk ... walking backwards!  He thought it was so funny.

Here's a still of his backwards walking smile.  How can you resist?

With equal numbers of adults and kids, this walk takes a half an hour; with two kids to one parent, the walk ended up taking a full hour.  But it was a beautiful day and it was nice to get lost in exploration with my kids.  We stopped for nearly every "water circle" ...

... utility box ...

... mailbox ...

... and ant hill we encountered.  (Yes, I taught him about ant hills ... every boy should know what they are, right?)

And even though we weren't counting them, Baylor had to stop at the fire hydrant in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house.

After an hour of walking, including one decent-sized hill, Baylor was pooped.

Unfortunately it was one house away from home.

With a little encouragement, he rallied and made the walk up to our mailbox.

We saw 37 mailboxes in all, a total he will gladly share with you if you ask.

It was so much fun going for a walk ... just me and the kids.