Baby's First Walk

Since bringing Topher home from the hospital in late October, it's been too cold to take him out, or he's been too little and we were afraid of exposing him to too many germs. Which has meant for us many days, weeks, and months of being very cooped up. Sure, we've taken him into town and run him from the car into Walmart a few times, but it's a pain to bundle him up in his coat, buckle him into his seat, and stuff blankets all around him while hoping he doesn't have a breakdown in the middle of grocery shopping. Today the high was 40, which feels like a heat wave compared to the minus 45 degree weather we had a couple weeks ago. And since it's a Saturday and we were all home together, we decided to try out his all-terrain stroller. So we put him into his hoodie outfit, then into his coat, then buckled him into the stroller, then tucked 2 blankets tightly around him. We didn't want him getting sick, after all. And then we had our first walk...all the way down the block to the post office and back. Topher did great, didn't make a peep, and seemed to enjoy looking around. It sounds like a small thing, but it's really the first time we have purposefully taken him outside for any length of time. I have a feeling that, come Spring, we'll pound the pavement a lot with that stroller. And at least if he does have a breakdown, we won't be standing at the checkout line with the checkout lady saying, "Hang in there, mom and dad" and everyone within earshot cringing at the sound of our baby's lungs exploding. (Yes, that really did happen at Target a couple weeks ago but we had to purchase that Transformer for TJ--sorry, I mean for Topher--before we could take our wild child out to the car.) I'm bundled up and ready to go! I really am in here somewhere... Mommy strolling baby down the street. There's our house behind that big tree: This is different, but I don't hate it. Who's driving this thing, anyway? And here we are strolling in "downtown" Cambridge: We can't wait until it's warm enough to just throw a t-shirt and diaper on Topher and go jogging together. It will cut down on the loading/unloading time, anyway. But for now, we're just happy to have the weather warm up enough to introduce Topher to a little something called fresh air. --KC