walk with your kids

i have discovered by mistake that the best way to get kids to talk is to take a walk with them.

i just had the delight of walking with my babe in tow and my nephew at my side. this guy. as you already know he's one of my favorite people in the world. there are some days though, that i feel time slipping away and i think to myself, 'i don't even know e anymore'.

so today he joined me on one of my few ventures out since motherhood. and we chatted it up. what i like about walking is ones mind can wander, discussing unrelated subject after another and no one thinks twice about it.

he and i talked about sports, soccer is his favorite. we talked about trees (weeping maples) and about gardening. we're going to try to grow some tomatoes and peppers this summer together. we talked about recycling (his grandmother-NOT MY MOM-doesn't do it and that makes both e and i upset). we talked about junking. this was brought on by the fact that we walked by an entire garbage bin that someone had stuffed full of what e thought was 'perfectly nice' carpet. he and i and j are going to make something out of junk this summer. when i asked him if he wanted to do this with us, he shouted, 'YEAH!' (history: e has a hard time throwing things away. i am going to attempt to harness this energy by helping him learn how to make useful items out of the things he desires to recycle).

we rounded the corner back to our house and he spotted a tree across from our driveway. he asked if he could climb it. first thought was, 'no, we don't know if those people would like it' and then i thought, 'who freakin' cares, if someone has a problem with a kid climbing a tree they're the one with the issue'.

he climbed and tweeted like a bird while my babe squealed, reclined in her stroller, kicking her legs and watching the pine trees blow above her.