Just take her with you
With my hectic schedule lately, it's been tough to get a workout in and not piss off Julie or Abbie. When I'm done working, Abbie wants to play like a crazy lady. I don't blame her - we have a lot of fun together. If I finish the day and walk into the living room to tell them I'm heading out to get some exercise, both of them get mad. Julie because I've been working all day and she wants a break; Abbie because she's ready for some fun.
About 2 weeks ago, we were all a little huffy at each other as I wanted to head out for a run before DJUG. Julie was trying to convince me to skip it so I could spend some time with Abbie. Abbie saw I was leaving - put on her shoes and ran to the door to go with me. Everyone was tense and Julie says "Just take her with you!" I laugh b/c our stroller isn't a jogging stroller, but then I realize it wasn't a bad idea.
Abbie usually can't sit still in the stroller for more than a few minutes, so even though I thought it would be a disaster, I took her anyway. I jogged and pushed her around our local park - and to my amazement - she loved it. She didn't want to get out once - she just giggled and laughed and pointed out all the dogs and airplanes. Since then, we've gone a couple times.
Getting bold with this new "take her with you" mantra, yesterday I took Abbie on a hike. Rather than a simple walk around the lake, I wanted to take her on a real hike. So we trekked on out to the foothills, strapped her in the backpack and headed up Mt. Falcon. This is a beautiful trail that I used to mountain bike a fair amount. I expected an hour trip, but it ended up being an hour and 40 minutes. How did Abbie do? She loved it. Sure we had to stop a few times, and of course she didn't want to get in the backpack after doing so, but I had lots of joose and gummy bears, so she was happy. It was something I'll remember for the rest of my life - especially the last 20 minutes where she made me sing to her the whole time. A true father-daughter experience - I'm looking forward to many more. I can't wait until Raible #2 arrives, I'm taking a month off and hope to enjoy a lot more days like yesterday.
Posted by Pat on August 23, 2004 at 03:33 AM MDT #
Posted by Matt Raible on August 23, 2004 at 03:53 AM MDT #
Posted by Christian Parker on August 23, 2004 at 01:45 PM MDT #
Posted by Matt Raible on August 23, 2004 at 03:31 PM MDT #
Posted by Mark Matthews on August 23, 2004 at 05:20 PM MDT #
Posted by Bryce on August 23, 2004 at 09:22 PM MDT #
Posted by Bruce on August 23, 2004 at 11:21 PM MDT #
Posted by Christina on August 23, 2004 at 11:45 PM MDT #
Did you ride into Highlands Ranch the other day with Abbie in a burley? We were driving on Foothills Canyon to Town Center drive the other day and I thought I saw somebody that could have been you on a bike with a burley in tow. When Abbie's older you'll have to get a tag-along. We got one from Gart's and it wasn't too expensive. My youngest had fits when we'd ride and he was stuck in the Burley. With the tag-along he gets to pedal and feel like he's really riding too. It's a frame that has a wheel, chain, pedals and handelbars that mounts to your seat posts so it's sort of like a tandem bike.
Greg
Posted by Greg Ostravich on August 24, 2004 at 02:56 PM MDT #