After weeks of hanging out near home in Sunnyside, I was starting to get the itch to take a long walk in the city. It's not always easy to do in the summer when the middle of the day temps can force you back inside within minutes, but on Thursday I was willing to give it a shot. So after a lovely morning having coffee with some friends, I came home to change and off we went to Central Park for a little walk and lunch. I know I complain sometimes that it's such a production to get us all mobilized in a reasonable amount of time, but we are getting better. And then we hit the bus stop and I couldn't get one of the strollers collapsed as the bus waited and I nervously began to feel like that mom. You know, the one who starts to lose it over the smallest obstacle. But then Nacho grabbed it and found the strap was in the way and just like that it folded up and we were off. See? That wasn't so bad...
Being a two stroller family now for our city walks isn't ideal, but when the result is simultaneous napping, you have to consider it a victory. We picked up this extra Maclaren for free from another Sunnymom earlier in the summer and so far, it has served us well. The "blue stroller" is one of the only things Elisa has been possessive of and I don't blame her. It's been her ride and her comfort during our long outings for almost 4 years now. So she doesn't take kindly to having to share it with her sister. And the truth is, they really both need some wheels when our walks start to weave all over the city. It isn't easy to go up and down the subway steps with all this gear, but the payoff once we are in the city is that everyone is more relaxed and we can go where we like. And yes, sometimes I see people checking Elisa out in the stroller and the looks are starting to turn a bit sour. Like why is that child still riding around in one of those? But I know why and that's all that matters. Being so big for her age is definitely part of this and sometimes I wonder if I penalize her sometimes for not acting older too. As much as I want 4 to be the magic age, I also know that it's still so young. But she has her moments of absolute charm and fun and the other day we had a completely tantrum-free day. It was worth noting because we'd been in the park all day swimming, having lunch and back home to nap with no drama. It was glorious. And yet, by the following morning there were tears and shouts over nothing again. Ahhhh...we're working on it.
And Carolina continues to be our go-with-it girl who does exactly what we need her to do. She really makes life easy. Of course, we oblige her a good long morning nap every day, but after that, we let things just fall into place and usually she hangs on til we get home to nap again. Sometimes, she will fall asleep in the stroller if we keep her moving, but even then it usually just means an earlier bedtime which almost feels like a win-win. I know it's hard to say if this trend will continue into toddlerhood, but I'm confident our little excursions will only get better. Right now with her non-walking walking we are having to help her do almost everything and she is so fixated on putting everything in her mouth it's impossible to let her crawl around freely outside. So I'm looking forward to the fall and maybe having a bit more fun with her toddling around hands free. Then the parks around the city will take on a new life for us as a family. And maybe Nacho and I can sit on the benches in peace because all this walking makes me tired.
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