Use your legs!!!

We’ve been trying to discipline Calvin to walk by my side rather than have to be carried everywhere.  He’s 2 ½. He should walk.

Over the weekend I was trying to go to the post office, get some coffee and chocolate milk and then the two of us were going to walk to the playground.

When we left Starbucks my hands were full.  I had my iced coffee and his chocolate milk, which was splashing with every step. He still got underneath my feet and reached up so I had to pick him up.

It’s hard to get around him.  I carried him across the road and put him down.  He was just too heavy to juggle with drinks. He was crying and griping and trying to hit me or hit his head on the sidewalk.

I crouched down to his level and said, “I am not going to pick you up. The two of us are going to walk to the playground together. If you’re too tired to walk to the playground, you must be too tired to play.”

He still wanted me to pick him up.  I said that if he made me pick him up we would just go to the car and go home. We wouldn’t go to the playground at all.  It was his choice.

I started walking across the Fuller Lodge lawn.  He didn’t follow me, he just stood there, crying. Grrr.

I sat down and let him sit in my lap and calm down. He drank some chocolate milk. He said he wanted to go to the playground and I said I know. He has to walk.

Then Quinn called wondering if I’d eaten any lunch. He wanted me to come home and eat turkey sandwiches. I figured I wasn’t getting anywhere with Calvin so we might as well go back to the car and have lunch.

Suddenly Calvin decided he wanted to see the ducks. He got out of my lap and ran to the crosswalk.  I carried him across (we’ll work on street crossing later) and he walked down the hill to Ashley Pond. There he sat on the sidewalk to see the ducks.

They were on the other side of the pond.  From where we were we could see some enormous fish. I’ve always seen the minnows on the surface but I had no idea there were such big fish in there.

Eventually he was ready to go and he walked part of the way and wanted to be carried again.  I was getting angry because he’s so heavy and I end up looking like a bitch when he sits down in the middle of the road and I have to drag his dead weight to the other side barking, “Move it!” I can just feel all the eyes on me from the Starbucks window.

Finally I got exasperated and carried him to the car. He was upset when we got home and he realized that we never went to the playground, but we told him that he needs to walk.