My 7-year-old got a Fitbit Zip for his birthday. He lost it, but before he did, I decided to buy one that I’ve been using. The good news is that he found his again and has been taking reasonable care of it. He’s also become slightly competitive with me about who is taking more steps, and is very into achieving new records. Sometimes this means he runs laps around the house. In a development I’m more happy about, he’s also been interested in going on walks with me in the evening.
Summer is a wonderful time for after-dinner walks. It’s still light out, but the heat isn’t so bad. Our neighborhood is finally its overgrown summer self, and I’ve been smelling the honeysuckle and enjoying everyone’s roses. My 7-year-old is a pretty good walking companion. He sets a reasonable, but not roaring pace. He does like to cut through people’s yards on corners, but he’s sane enough not to run out into the street. We’ve been chatting about life in general. One time he consented to hold my hand.
We’ve done this three days in a row now (tonight before dinner, but still in the evening) and it’s been a great way to get an extra 2000 steps or so. I always hit 10,000, but I’d like to hit 12,000 or 15,000 more regularly. Thanks to my new walking buddy, I just might start doing that.
In other kids-growing-up news: He turns out to be a reasonable biker too. We loaded all the equipment onto the hitch and into the trunk, and did part of the Schuylkill River Trail near Oaks, PA today. The 4-year-old rode on the tag-along bike behind me, and the 2-year-old in the Burley behind my husband, but the 7-year-old managed to do all 8 miles or so on his own. He couldn’t even ride his bike without training wheels 4 months ago. Now that the 2-year-old can be the queen of the Burley all by herself (and not have to share it with her brother while the 7-year-old does the tag-along) we can go reasonable distances! It was a beautiful day by the river, and great for a picnic too.
There are just some really awesome things about moving out of the baby stage of life, aren’t there??
@The Frugal Girl – it’s fun to interact with them as real people. And do real people things like biking! Even if it does still involve a lot of equipment.
Love this story. Got me a bit nostalgic for walks with my mom, growing up. We were nearly always too busy for it, but I know she valued the time, and I wished we’d done more of it.
@Shanna- thanks! It really is a nice way to spend my evenings!
Your walks sound lovely. I wonder if you kept doing it, if it would become your time to have those “hard conversations”, kind of like people do when they’re in the car so they don’t have direct eye contact and it’s not so much pressure.
Also a great way to meet neighbors!
Oh, that magical stage where kids can ski the whole mountain (adios bunny hill) and golf from the front tees (hola mommy/son golf afternoons) and of course when he can bike on his own two wheels. It’s the small things in life that bring the biggest grins for parents and children. 🙂
@Kelsie – growing up is a good thing! I don’t ski, but my husband has really enjoyed skiing with our older two, and the littlest one wants to learn next winter when she’ll be 3.5. They’ve done some serious hills, which scares me a bit, but they all like it. I’m looking forward to any of the kids wanting to run with me, though if my 7-year-old can bike, that means he could bike while I run, and that would still work.