. VG .: Morning walks

A nice thing that I've started doing with the kids in the morning, if all our chores are done! is going on a nice morning walk. On our walks Lucy has been really interested in nature and all the different things that it has to offer. Especially now that it's getting colder out, leaves are falling on the ground and they make this ever so nice crunching sound when you step on them... repeatedly. I'm not quite sure what it is but we have seen a TON of pray mantis out this year. Everytime we see one they kids are really excited about it. Dude is still trying to get Lucy to touch one...

Dude is always picking me flowers :)

Momma and the Lucy walking hand in hand

That boy loves riding his bike!

On one of our last excursions he did get her to touch a centipede, and then after that she was feeling pretty brave. The next thing we ran into was this huge, fat, juicy green caterpillar, so she went right up to it and gave it a poke. I think the soft texture of it scared her, because she was expecting a hard outer shell like the centipede and she as UNHAPPY. She came running back to me and tried to hide in my legs. After that she was a bit more cautious about the things she would try and touch.

Praying mantis

Big nasty caterpillar that scared Lu

She figured that cloves are safe to touch

I love the curiosity of the kids. I think it's really interesting the connections they've made already between the 20 months between them. Lucy is more likely to touch things because she hasn't made those connections of things she thinks should be icky and gross... so I'm trying not to give her any of my weird baggage about touching insects and things like that. Then, there's Dude. He knows what he should touch and what he shouldn't. But he has no problems with trying to get Lucy to touch things. :) Classic big brother.

The purple playground right across the street from our place

The other playground

More purple playground action

We usually hit up one of the playgrounds on our walk. Depending on how the kids are behaving we do the dino playground at the very middle of our walk. They love it. They love being outdoors and I know that the fresh air does everybody good. We normally come back and have a nice snack and get ready for nap. It's a nice little routine I look forward to getting more into when I start feeling 110%. :)