Yesterday was a rainy, cold sort of day. I bundled Tucker up in the late afternoon and took him on a walk with Benny in the stroller while Austin was working out. It wasn't raining, and besides being a bit on the brisk side, much fun was had by all. One of Tucker's favorite activities on walks is Sneak the Mitten Away from Mommy where he pulls his mittens off and flings them out of the stroller when I'm not looking. Let's just say my boy likes his hands colds and his mittens lost.
Anyway, so we finished up our walk, I took him out of the stroller and headed up the stairs into the house, expecting a little tyke to join me any minute. No dice. Tucker lives to be outside. First he explored the shed door but found it unsatisfactorily latched, so he took off down the driveway. I watched, expecting him to turn around. Again, no dice. By the time he got to the hemlock tree, I decided I would join him on his expedition up the driveway. Little man toddled with purpose up our long, windy driveway. We reached the sign at the end and we celebrated our arduous journey, and I turned around to head for home.
And Tucker kept walking.
And walking.
And walking.
I tried to convince him to do a little loop on the gravel circle in front of our house. Silly mommy. My little man was on a mission and he kept going. He passed the O'Connells house where he discovered two puddles and that their paved driveway is easier to walk on. And then he kept going. By the time we reached the Downs' driveway it was definitely dinner time, still rainy and cold, and almost dark. We had a face off as I repeatedly picked him up and turned him around. He would take two steps towards home and then try to fake me out and run back the other direction.
By the time we got home, Tucker must've walked a good quarter mile, possibly more, and we had a mini meltdown when it turned out it was dinner time, and not time to explore the rest of the outdoors. (It only took three times through the Ducky book to get him ready to cooperate with dinner....)
Today, it was even rainier. To celebrate, Tucker went puddle hopping (see pic).
