solo daddin'
Lara headed to Denver this morning for some recharge time sans-munchkins. So I'm holding down the fort with the kiddos. This shouldn't be noteworthy, I mean, Lara does it every day. But, noteworthy or not, it's unusual, at least for us.
I wanted to make it fun, and I have trouble coming up with things to do around the house, so, shortly after Lara left, we loaded up the bike trailer and cruised down to the Environmental Learning Center (ELC), about 1/2 mile away. They've got a couple of nice trails there, short enough that it's not a huge deal, and close, which is nice. The idea was to ride down there (my car is having issues right now), put Evan in a carrier, and have Anya walk. Some risk involved, since Anya hasn't really done this type of thing more than once before, and I carried her for part of that. With Evan, and by myself, carrying her wasn't really much of an option.
As soon as I got her out of the trailer, we hit our first snag.
The Ants.
Oh, the ants. See, Anya isn't a big fan of bugs, and she's a pretty observant girl. She saw plenty of ants on the ground, and she wasn't having any of it. She pretty much just wanted to get back in the trailer and go home. But I'm pretty stubborn, and somehow we made it to the first, paved, part of the trail, and that was pretty much antless, so we were able to proceed.
Soon after came challenge #2 (this was starting to seem like Indiana Jones). There's a slightly rickety suspension bridge over the river, and all of the paths are on the other side. So we started to cross. Surprisingly, the height (maybe 10 feet) didn't bother her much, nor did the water below, but once we got out there the bridge started to bounce up and down just a little, and she didn't like that much. But, as I said, I'm stubborn, and pretty soon we were more than halfway across. I was trying to walk really lightly to keep from bouncing, which seemed to help. Of course, then a few other people came up behind us, and they weren't so careful, but by that time, we were pretty much over it anyhow. Challenge #2 passed.
Things were good at this point. There was a lot to look at, and no bugs to be found (trust me, she was looking). We talked about the long grass, and why no one was mowing it, and about the birds, and what we would do if a bird tried to get her (she's a worrier. we're working on it.) But, really, she was having a good time, which meant I was having a good time. It was shady, and really pretty nice. Except for the mosquitos, which mercifully, she never noticed. Then we came out in the sun, and lo and behold, there were more ants. Lots of them. And of course, this was a problem. So we talked about it a little, and tried to keep walking, and I pointed out that the ants didn't even seem to know she was there, and they were too busy looking for food to care about her. She wasn't happy about it, but she kept on walking. I think she realized that we were too far in at this point to just turn back, or maybe it had just sunk in that I wasn't going to give up easy. Anyhow, I tried to keep engaging her in conversation: it's possible to make her temporarily forget her anxieties if you can get her talking about something that she finds interesting. So, we talked about the ants. Where they live, what they're doing. How they dig their holes, and how funny that is. Are they taking the food back to their ant babies? Are they telling all of the other ants to be quiet because the babies are sleeping? You get the idea. Now the ants were interesting instead of scary. Well, okay, maybe interesting and scary. After awhile we saw some different looking anthills, but no ants, so we talked about where they might be. Maybe they're taking a nap (Wake up, ants!). Then we saw a different kind of ant, smaller than the other ones. Fortunately we ran out of ants before we ran out of topics of conversation.
Unfortunately, I wasn't paying the closest attention when I looked at the map, and I took the long way around to get back, which is a pretty long way. Anya wanted to stop and snack, and part of me wanted to, but part of me wanted to get out of the sun and away from the mosquitos before we did. Amazingly, she was a little trooper. She kept reminding me that she wanted to stop, but she kept on walking. I explained that I went the wrong way, and that it was farther than I thought. (Why?) After a long time, we got back to the bridge. Yep, bridge again. But there was the prospect of cheerios on the other side, so we got across without too much complaint.
When we got back to the parking lot, with the ants that started it all, Anya announced she was going to just run (across it), because of the ants. Fine with me, we ran over to the picnic area and chowed down. (You may take from this description that the whole walk was a pretty unpleasant experience, but you'd be wrong. I actually thought it was a success, and I think Anya had a good time. And it was memorable, for sure.)
Also at the ELC is a refuge for a half dozen or so raptors that have been injured and can't make it in the wild. Golden Eagle, Bald Eagle, Owl, Turkey Vulture, and a few others. They're *big* birds, and you get to see them pretty close. Well, today, we got to see them even closer than normal. Anya looked over that way and asked me what those people were doing. I looked over and noticed a ring of people, and in the middle, a big owl, standing on a little perch. (Anya: what's he standing on? Me: some sort of stool. Anya: an owl stool?) We went a little closer, but Anya definitely wanted to keep her distance. She got a pretty big kick out of it turning it's head *way* around to look at us, though.
So it turns out, today was the bird checkup day, where what seemed like some volunteers or vet students or something were checking out and feeding all of the birds. So we got to see a couple others out of their cages, and the keepers with their huge leather gloves, and the eagles and vulture chowing down on some raw meat. Yum.
Afterwards, we headed back for our own lunch. Lemme tell you, climbing that hill up to our house pulling 100lbs of kid, stuff, and trailer, is a little different than by myself on a lightweight road bike.
Lunch was another adventure. Somehow, Anya had convinced me to let her have an ice cream sandwich after her nap (okay, really she just asked. I'm a softy) But during lunch, she started lobbying for having it before her nap, instead. (Anya: I was thinking... if I eat a really good lunch...) I said no for awhile, but then decided to see what I could do with the situation. It's so rare that I have leverage like this. I told her that if she ate three raspberries she could have it. Notice, she needed to eat them, not just try one. Immediately, she asked if she could have raspberry yogurt instead. Umm, no. So she said, yeah, bring them out, I'll try one. Which, shockingly, she did. But "trying" consisted of pretty much touching it to her teeth and saying she didn't like it. I told her that wasn't good enough, she needed to eat it. She tried again, and actually bit into it, but spit it out. So that was it for raspberries. She wanted to know what else she could eat. Well, okay, I'm game if you are. I brought out a banana. Same deal, but at least she tried it. (all this time Evan was happily chowing down on the fruit Anya didn't try. While she was trying one raspberry, he ate six. While she tried a tiny little bite of banana, he ate half of it.) I was running out of fruit, but we still had grapes. This was our biggest success, she bit into it, and actually tried it a couple more times. Never really chewed it, absolutely didn't swallow, but still, baby steps. She even said that it was juicy (and apparently this was a good thing.) She helped me cut up little pieces for Evan, tried it a few more times, but never took the plunge.
So, as I said, I'm a big softy. She never held up her side of the bargain, but damn, I don't think she has *ever* consecutively tried three fruits at one sitting before. She *really* wanted that ice cream sandwich. So, she got half. Evan and I got the other half. After her nap she gets the rest.
Everyone's asleep now. I should probably be building a deck or fixing my car, instead I'm blogging. Aaaand, I think I hear Anya waking up. TTFN.
I wanted to make it fun, and I have trouble coming up with things to do around the house, so, shortly after Lara left, we loaded up the bike trailer and cruised down to the Environmental Learning Center (ELC), about 1/2 mile away. They've got a couple of nice trails there, short enough that it's not a huge deal, and close, which is nice. The idea was to ride down there (my car is having issues right now), put Evan in a carrier, and have Anya walk. Some risk involved, since Anya hasn't really done this type of thing more than once before, and I carried her for part of that. With Evan, and by myself, carrying her wasn't really much of an option.
As soon as I got her out of the trailer, we hit our first snag.
The Ants.
Oh, the ants. See, Anya isn't a big fan of bugs, and she's a pretty observant girl. She saw plenty of ants on the ground, and she wasn't having any of it. She pretty much just wanted to get back in the trailer and go home. But I'm pretty stubborn, and somehow we made it to the first, paved, part of the trail, and that was pretty much antless, so we were able to proceed.
Soon after came challenge #2 (this was starting to seem like Indiana Jones). There's a slightly rickety suspension bridge over the river, and all of the paths are on the other side. So we started to cross. Surprisingly, the height (maybe 10 feet) didn't bother her much, nor did the water below, but once we got out there the bridge started to bounce up and down just a little, and she didn't like that much. But, as I said, I'm stubborn, and pretty soon we were more than halfway across. I was trying to walk really lightly to keep from bouncing, which seemed to help. Of course, then a few other people came up behind us, and they weren't so careful, but by that time, we were pretty much over it anyhow. Challenge #2 passed.
Things were good at this point. There was a lot to look at, and no bugs to be found (trust me, she was looking). We talked about the long grass, and why no one was mowing it, and about the birds, and what we would do if a bird tried to get her (she's a worrier. we're working on it.) But, really, she was having a good time, which meant I was having a good time. It was shady, and really pretty nice. Except for the mosquitos, which mercifully, she never noticed. Then we came out in the sun, and lo and behold, there were more ants. Lots of them. And of course, this was a problem. So we talked about it a little, and tried to keep walking, and I pointed out that the ants didn't even seem to know she was there, and they were too busy looking for food to care about her. She wasn't happy about it, but she kept on walking. I think she realized that we were too far in at this point to just turn back, or maybe it had just sunk in that I wasn't going to give up easy. Anyhow, I tried to keep engaging her in conversation: it's possible to make her temporarily forget her anxieties if you can get her talking about something that she finds interesting. So, we talked about the ants. Where they live, what they're doing. How they dig their holes, and how funny that is. Are they taking the food back to their ant babies? Are they telling all of the other ants to be quiet because the babies are sleeping? You get the idea. Now the ants were interesting instead of scary. Well, okay, maybe interesting and scary. After awhile we saw some different looking anthills, but no ants, so we talked about where they might be. Maybe they're taking a nap (Wake up, ants!). Then we saw a different kind of ant, smaller than the other ones. Fortunately we ran out of ants before we ran out of topics of conversation.
Unfortunately, I wasn't paying the closest attention when I looked at the map, and I took the long way around to get back, which is a pretty long way. Anya wanted to stop and snack, and part of me wanted to, but part of me wanted to get out of the sun and away from the mosquitos before we did. Amazingly, she was a little trooper. She kept reminding me that she wanted to stop, but she kept on walking. I explained that I went the wrong way, and that it was farther than I thought. (Why?) After a long time, we got back to the bridge. Yep, bridge again. But there was the prospect of cheerios on the other side, so we got across without too much complaint.
When we got back to the parking lot, with the ants that started it all, Anya announced she was going to just run (across it), because of the ants. Fine with me, we ran over to the picnic area and chowed down. (You may take from this description that the whole walk was a pretty unpleasant experience, but you'd be wrong. I actually thought it was a success, and I think Anya had a good time. And it was memorable, for sure.)
Also at the ELC is a refuge for a half dozen or so raptors that have been injured and can't make it in the wild. Golden Eagle, Bald Eagle, Owl, Turkey Vulture, and a few others. They're *big* birds, and you get to see them pretty close. Well, today, we got to see them even closer than normal. Anya looked over that way and asked me what those people were doing. I looked over and noticed a ring of people, and in the middle, a big owl, standing on a little perch. (Anya: what's he standing on? Me: some sort of stool. Anya: an owl stool?) We went a little closer, but Anya definitely wanted to keep her distance. She got a pretty big kick out of it turning it's head *way* around to look at us, though.
So it turns out, today was the bird checkup day, where what seemed like some volunteers or vet students or something were checking out and feeding all of the birds. So we got to see a couple others out of their cages, and the keepers with their huge leather gloves, and the eagles and vulture chowing down on some raw meat. Yum.
Afterwards, we headed back for our own lunch. Lemme tell you, climbing that hill up to our house pulling 100lbs of kid, stuff, and trailer, is a little different than by myself on a lightweight road bike.
Lunch was another adventure. Somehow, Anya had convinced me to let her have an ice cream sandwich after her nap (okay, really she just asked. I'm a softy) But during lunch, she started lobbying for having it before her nap, instead. (Anya: I was thinking... if I eat a really good lunch...) I said no for awhile, but then decided to see what I could do with the situation. It's so rare that I have leverage like this. I told her that if she ate three raspberries she could have it. Notice, she needed to eat them, not just try one. Immediately, she asked if she could have raspberry yogurt instead. Umm, no. So she said, yeah, bring them out, I'll try one. Which, shockingly, she did. But "trying" consisted of pretty much touching it to her teeth and saying she didn't like it. I told her that wasn't good enough, she needed to eat it. She tried again, and actually bit into it, but spit it out. So that was it for raspberries. She wanted to know what else she could eat. Well, okay, I'm game if you are. I brought out a banana. Same deal, but at least she tried it. (all this time Evan was happily chowing down on the fruit Anya didn't try. While she was trying one raspberry, he ate six. While she tried a tiny little bite of banana, he ate half of it.) I was running out of fruit, but we still had grapes. This was our biggest success, she bit into it, and actually tried it a couple more times. Never really chewed it, absolutely didn't swallow, but still, baby steps. She even said that it was juicy (and apparently this was a good thing.) She helped me cut up little pieces for Evan, tried it a few more times, but never took the plunge.
So, as I said, I'm a big softy. She never held up her side of the bargain, but damn, I don't think she has *ever* consecutively tried three fruits at one sitting before. She *really* wanted that ice cream sandwich. So, she got half. Evan and I got the other half. After her nap she gets the rest.
Everyone's asleep now. I should probably be building a deck or fixing my car, instead I'm blogging. Aaaand, I think I hear Anya waking up. TTFN.
posted by Steve
3 Comments:
I think you were the trooper Steve. It would have been so much easier to just take her home at the first sign of ants.
He-larious! I love it. Great post
JeffT
I am WAY impressed with the uphill bike ride, complete with 2 kids, trailer and carrier - our hill up to the park pushing a stroller is sometimes a challenge for me!
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