Go, Mommy, go!

 So I've been walking a lot, recently.  And now that Vander is one we also got to go for a bike ride!



Which pretty much means that Mommy gets all the exercise and the kiddos get a free ride.

We didn't go too far the first time, just to a park nearby.  But the road was not completely level, and as I headed up the first little hill the 70 lbs behind me was threatening defeat. 

"Cheer for me!"  I told Annalee.

"What?"

"Say, 'Go, Mommy, go!'"

"Go, Mommy, go!" she repeated, over and over, and I made it! 

We played at the park for a while, but it was cold.  Annalee made the mistake of going down a slide without checking to see if there was water at the bottom first.  She tried to play with two girls that were there.  They were a little older, maybe 5 and 7.  And they ignored her.  And their dad let them.  It kills me every time I see her sweet, innocent friendliness smacked in the face like that.  What is with kids these days?  And what is with their parents?  Annalee will say, "Hi, I'm Annalee!  What's your name?"  And the kid looks at her in disbelief and then looks away.  At which point, I expect a decent parent to say, "What do you say when someone says 'hi' to you?  Tell that nice girl your name."  Instead....silence.  So then she looks at me with a sad face and her lip hanging out.  Smiling, pretending that I don't want to smack someone, I brightly encourage her to try again, saying, "Maybe they're just shy."  So she tries again.  Sometimes it works.  But a lot of the times it doesn't.

Grrrr!  Momma Bear!!!

(Can I count "restraining myself" as exercise?)