winning the race

As spring comes and goes, I have been yearning to get out running with one of the kids. Today, as it started out nice and warm, presented itself to make an attempt. E was the most obvious kid to try with. She has in my opinion been quite a challenge for me lately. I try and try not to let a two year old outwit, outplay and outlast me but.... I have no excuse. Anyway, I saw my opportunity and prepared for it then made my move. I waited for the moment then asked if she wanted to go running with daddy, threw her in the jogger and we were off. I figured that if I can reintroduce her to running with a bit of an incentive (bribe) then I might get back to a partial routine. Well, my plan was to head across Okemos rd. down a trail system to a local park where there would be a nice diversion. We were most the way there before she got antsy, but I held her off and we made it. We spent quite a bit of time sliding, climbing and swinging. We except for a few people in cars, were the only ones there for quite some time. A little chihuahua stopped by with its owners but E was afraid to touch it. Then, finally a little girl, Lillian stopped with her grand parents. E was very polite and said to her "my name is E" Very sweet! Anyway, we played and climbed a bit longer but I kept a watchful eye on storm clouds. I finally noted a few drops of rain and promptly told E that we needed to race home in order to beat the rain, like Diego did yesterday on TV. She seemed to like that and it made our departure quite easy. As the clouds swirled overhead, the drops started coming. I prompted E to say whether she liked it and if the drops felt nice. She nodded her head in agreement but I think she was a bit cold and probably tired. Anyway, as we came up the drive, she was happy as was I because the rain came. "We did it, we did it, hurray!" to quote from Dora. We beat the storm clouds and I made sure I held a connection to one of her favorite things (Dora) as I need to figure out what bribes will keep working so I, I mean we can get out running. The park may have to be it for a while. It ads quite a bit of time to the whole process but I really loved it and she was really very good! Love my E!