Get Out

Okay, so not literally....wait, yes, literally.

So, you should know that I am not an outdoorsy-kinda-girl. I want to be. Really badly. I watch those shows where someone is on a physical adventure, climbing mount everest or running their 19th marathon. One weekend many many moons ago I holed up in my apartment watching a marathon of a little show called Eco-Challenge, airing on the Discovery Channel. Groups of 4 (maybe 3, can't remember) would team up and have to complete an extremely difficult mission involving them, a tent, a compass and like 40 protein bars. They had 5 days to complete it and no directions and were dropped in the middle of crazy terrain like northern China, or something less communist, but equally strange to my western mind. It was ah-mazing. It got even better on Sunday afternoon as I watched the finale and ate pizza. I'm not kidding. I think I have proven my point.

So, fast forward. I am a mom to a beautiful little ball of energy who keeps me more than occupied. She is not yet 2, and so we have begun our journey into what I will call the "Teachable Twos". I've decided on this name for 2 reasons 1) you read that and immediately thought I am describing all of the teaching I will be doing. But hells no, my friend. Let's just go ahead and acknowledge that I will be learning and she will be doing most of the teaching AND 2) I believe our words (especially as parents) carry much power and therefore am very cautious about labeling any stage I encounter with little people who have all of the emotions I have and less than a quarter of the ability to adequately communicate those emotions....thus far.

I am now going to describe what I call a typical morning in our family life.

Wake up. Brush teeth. Baby girl tries to put on her shoes while brushing her teeth, so I can take her outside. Make breakfast, eat breakfast. Baby girl tries to put on her shoes so I can take her outside. Husband leaves for work. Baby girl tries to escape through the garage as he is leaving, so she can play outside. Skype my grandparents; 5 minutes in Baby girl tries to take my hand to lead me outside to the back yard to play with her. Get some coffee (for me, not her. She's cutting down on her coffee intake....) Start to make the beds and run a load of laundry. Baby girl walks over to me with her shoes on (backwards, of course. She's got a 50\50 chance and manages to get them right like 2 times out of 10. But, it's adorable) and motions to the front door for me to take her outside to play.

It's only 9:45.

Are you sensing a pattern?? Well, you're smarter than I am. It took me a week or so to figure out that most of our time was going to now be spent outdoors. BUT, one setback. I live in the hottest most humid city in the entire world. Ok, maybe not the world, but definitely the hottest city in the west. I mean the east. oh whatever, it's hot.

So we started walking. At first we both walked. But that provides too much freedom to an almost two year old that wants to do everything on her own, even cross the street. So, it was into the stroller for her with a couple of snacks. And we walked. and walked. and walked. And it was blissful. Completely liberating in that she got to see different kinds of birds and we stopped into our local grocery store so that we could cool off, grab a couple of items and refill our waters. And, voila, on the way home she fell asleep peacefully amidst the lawn mowers and leaf blowers and honking horns and, and, and. Nirvana.

It went quite well, this little experiment of mine. So I decided to try it again. The next day. And it was equally blissful and relaxing for both of us. It was still hot, but the thing is we were going to be outside regardless. And this way, we were getting a nice breeze from the crosswind of the cars zooming past us. Nice.

So this is our new routine. And at first I was concerned that the stroller time wouldn't be stimulating enough for a busy little busybody. But I was happily proven wrong! Seeing all of the new animals, plants, people, cars - it was heaven for her brain. She takes in every detail.

And this brings me to one of the surprising parenting ideas that I have stumbled upon since joining the club. I thought that as her mother, it was my job to provide plenty of stimulation in controlled environments (as to avoid injury) and she would be so smart and precocious because she had the mommy that thought of every detail. Whoa, was I wrong. In fact, I think almost completely opposite, now. (See, I'm learning....) Stimulation happens as she encounters her everyday natural environment, particularly in an uncontrolled environment. Is it gross when she finds caterpillars or worms and brings them to me? Kind of (remember, I'm Indoor girl. I have superpowers that allow me to sit on a couch for hours). But at the end of the day, she is completely wow-ed by finding those squirmy slimy little guys. And her brain is working on overdrive as she discovers them.

Recently I have been invited to some of those indoor jump-around kids places. Don't get me wrong, they have their place (literally, ha). But I have a strong urge at this stage to share the outdoors with Baby girl. She'll spend enough time very soon indoors, what with school and after school activities. Its more important to me that she cultivate a relationship with her natural world than with a plastic, conjured one. Even if it means she is putting on her shoes 17 times a day and bringing me a dead beetle she found in the dirt. I think I am just going to have to put on my best outdoor girl imitation and roll with it. My my, the things we do for our little ones....