Maiden Voyage(s)

We took a much-needed family walk today. It was so nice to get out of the house. For all the delightful things about winter (hot chocolate, snuggling up with a movie or book on a snowy day, shoveling until the shovel breaks, your four year old completely mocking the snowman you built), we all get a little cagey by the time it's winding down. So out came the sun and out came the family! Claire loves, loves, loves being outside and was cooing up a storm the whole time. I think it's safe to say we all commiserated.

Claire (and dad) made her first trip ever down a slide. I wasn't fast enough to catch the first one. This is the second one. I think she enjoyed herself, though. She was looking around in amazement. She kind of does this wide-eyed glance sometimes and you know if she could verbalize it, she would be saying "Holy crap! What was that?!"

Mason took his scooter out for its first real spin. This is one of the major drawbacks of having your birthday and Christmas back-to-back and in the winter. His "big" presents from mom and dad or Santa are often outdoorsy things that he has to bottle up the excitement to use until warm weather hits. He's been dying to take this bad boy around the block for some time. He only had one fall, and he brushed it off after a bit of coddling. He also insisted that his scooter could not go through puddles and carried it over them.

We also had the bonus of seeing some neighbors along the way. It's kind of entertaining how everyone's kids grow up in the winter when we are all hibernating. Everyone on our block is bigger, with more hair, etc. The little kids are desperately wanting to keep up with the big kids. I think Mason has reached the ranks of the "big kids" and that is hard for me to accept on so many levels.