Tennis Ball

I was late for work every day this week.

With my bike on the fritz and the icy roads making it tricky to push a stroller I decided to try an experiment: What if Skye and I just walked to school in the morning? (NOTE: Skye goes to daycare every day, but it's called Lit'l Scholars, so we refer to it as "school")

It turns out that 2-year-olds are really slow walkers. I think it's a combination of the tiny legs and the short attention span. Our path was never a straight brisk walk, but rather more of a meandering stroll.

I stressed a bit knowing I'd have to work through lunch to get everything done at the office and I envied my little daughter with no agenda or schedule to keep.

We made tracks in the snow, and compared the size of our shoe prints. We learned what kind of tracks dogs make and to stay away from the yellow snow. We stopped to stare at birds, clouds, airplanes, and mountains. We counted trees. We practiced our colors and the ABC's. We sang songs. We took time to pet some dogs and to scare away some cats. We talked about cars and trucks and buses and bikes. We enjoyed the smell of coffee and bacon. We huddled together to try and keep warm. We laughed.

On Friday Skye found an old chewed-up tennis ball about 2 minutes into our walk and decided it would be fun to kick it along the sidewalk...the entire way. I joined in.

I was REALLY late for work on Friday...and I didn't care.