I've always enjoyed walking, but almost two weeks ago I started intentionally doing that dreaded "E"-word: exercise. All that means is that I'm walking on purpose, daily, and fast. (For me, anyway...) If I can sneak out of bed and house early enough and quietly enough, I go by myself. I took Elisabeth with me once, and Lukas with me a few days ago. (He had to trot to keep up with me, but that didn't stop him from talking non-stop, which I enjoyed very much, and also darting here and there off of the trail to look at things, and then he STILL beat me when I was silly enough to suggest racing him a short distance...) I'd be very happy for Lukas to join me every morning, as it's starting to get kind of boring on my own, but he's usually asleep when I leave.
This morning I woke up at about 5:30 and decided not to leave just yet, fell asleep again, and woke up just before 6:00. As I was getting out of bed, Katie appeared and said that Helen had wet the bed. (As it turned out, Helen hadn't--she'd woken up crying that she had, but it was only that she needed to go to the toilet.) And as I tried to get Helen re-settled in bed, Elisabeth woke up. I obviously wasn't going to get any actual exercise by walking today, but not wanting to break the habit...I went anyway, taking Elisabeth and Helen so that Jörn could sleep. (I think the children have been waking up shortly after I leave more often than he tells me, but I couldn't with good conscience leave when I KNEW they were awake...)
I had no intention of going very far, but even as slow going as it was with Helen, it was so much more interesting with her along that "all of a sudden" we were at the end of the Nature Trail! Of course, it took 35 minutes as opposed to the 18 minutes it takes me on my own, but the time felt so much faster with someone to chat with. And I took the camera with me. :-)
My shadow, nice and tall and thin (so obviously distorted by the time of day, just before 7:00 a.m.), with Elisabeth on my back (the bump at the top right) and Helen leaning against me.
Helen admiring the view.
If you look carefully, you can see the aiport (towards the left) and a mosque (towards the right).
Proof that we made it to the end of the trail!
Since I'd taken a photo (two actually, and I meant to delete the one with her eyes closed but have now given up trying...I spend more time fighting with this blog than writing on it...) of Helen, she wanted to take a photo of me. Here's a fairly lousy one of my face and barely showing Elisabeth, so I asked her to take another one with Elisabeth...
...so she did. At least it's not another bad one of my face...
It doesn't really show in this photo, but on the middle of that lower branch is a bit of branch camoflauged as an iguana. At least, I always think it looks very much like an iguana, so even if nobody else can see it, I finally had to take a photo. Or two.
We sat on EVERY bench on the way back. Helen never exactly complained, but just under five kilometers was maybe a bit far for a three-and-three-quarter-year-old.
And Elisabeth wanted to get out of the Ergo, so here they are being cute together. I hadn't bothered getting Elisabeth dressed or putting shoes on her, since I just had her on my back, but the walk back was SO slow, and Elisabeth kept bouncing around, that I did wish I'd put shoes on her, as she wouldn't have had any problem at all keeping up.
It was fun, and I'm happy I finally photographed my iguana-tree! But I hope I'm able to sneak out on my own (or just with Lukas) tomorrow...
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