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a walk to the park (and home in the dark)

don't bother telling john he's a little kiddo on a big playground - he's got this beast tamed.

in an effort to shed some of the ice-cream-induced padding i've put on since we found out about the miscarriage (and, frankly, the everything-else-induced padding that was there before), i've decided it's time for john's mom to get active again. right now i'm still somewhat limited on the intensity of activity i'm supposed to do, so we're starting out small: the past two days, john and i have gone for walks in our neighborhood when we get home from work/school.

monday night we walked for about 40 minutes and covered nearly 2.5 miles - not bad pushing a stroller and talking about every truck, tree, and squirrel we encountered along the way! last night's walk was shorter, but punctuated by some time at the playground at the end of our neighborhood. there were some big kids having soccer practice but john had the playground mostly to himself, and let me tell you - the kid grows more fearless every day.

big ladder whose rungs are so far apart john can barely reach? not a problem. moving bridge that's a little slippery from sand on it? conquered. big tall twisty slide where you can't even see the bottom from the platform at the top? done.

i let him play too long, actually, and by the time we were heading home there was barely a shred of daylight left. as we trucked the half-mile back to our house, we discussed the slide ("so big, mommy!"), the fading light ("not dark, mommy, it's clouds.") and his nearly empty chocolate milk cup ("more delicious milk at the house, mommy!").

and all i can do is marvel at this strong, brave, awesome little man. well, marvel and dump the sand out of his shoes. but mostly marvel and love.

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