A Walk by the River.

I took the boys to the park yesterday. I called some friends but nobody could come with us and it turned out to be nice to have some alone time, just me and my little crew.
We went to a park with trees the size of small apartment buildings, down by the river. The air was sweet, the grass cool. We walked along the path by the river, Ethan riding his little red "Rocket" bike with those darn training wheels teeter-tottering from side to side, not helping a thing, but ever so necessary, psychologically, for him. In fact I believe they make things worse.
I never imagined in my whole entire life what a pain in the rear a bike and a four year old could be. It's been a long, whiny, meltdown, road to get to where we are today: sometimes he rides fine, most of the time it's on and off the bike the entire walk. Usually, he won't go down hills. And by hills, we are including the little dips in the sidewalk when you get to someone's driveway.
But yesterday was a good day. He went over the "speed bumps" (little cracks in the path) with no issues, and he even went down a pretty steep hill.
I was ecstatic, lavishing the praise. I was also shocked.
At one point Noah and I were doing our thing, moseying along, while Ethan went on ahead. His bright green shirt blended nicely with the background of trees, his red helmet sticking out like a big bug's shell. It's adorable to watch a little kid on his bike-when you are not dealing with them tipping over or wanting to get off every five seconds-their nobbley legs doing circles around and around. It was so satisfying to see him forge on ahead, independent, enjoying himself, my eyes got teary. I know, sometimes I surprise the heck outta myself.
We went back to the car and got our sandwiches and Ethan's Cars blanket which is way to small for a picnic blanket but was the one he wanted to use, and laid out under a small tree right there by the sidewalk. (Once you've had a successful two mile walk/ride with small children, there's no way you'd risk another couple of yards just to get a better spot).
The river was green and moving swiftly. Every couple of minutes you'd hear tubers pass, their happy voices rising up to where we sat, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Ethan made silly faces at me, making me laugh, and Noah gummed his small pieces of sandwich quietly in his big fat cheeks.