Walker Races

            When the twins were little they were the fastest crawlers I had ever seen so when we were able to stick them in walkers we thought that that would be easier, and it was. Sort of.

            When roaming around our house they couldn’t do a lot of damage, we thought. Adam had a ladle (Yes, a kitchen utensil. It was plastic. He liked it and I never used it so I gave it to him) and while traveling around the house he swung it at a door that had a large mirror on it. He cracked that and broke the ladle in half. Okay, not so harmless but no injuries so that was fortunate. It never occurred to me that he would hit that mirror; he liked to look in it so much that causing harm to it was, to me, unthinkable. Besides, he was little, under one-year old, so him being strong and coordinated enough to break anything was not a possibility. He mostly just chewed on that ladle, he never hit anything with it. Until he did.

            We had our house set up so that the boys could travel around and have plenty of space but not be able to get out of our sight. When it was nice out my husband came up with a spectacular idea. We took the boys and their walkers outside and let them roam up and down our driveway. It was paved and there was no way that they could tip themselves over or end up in the yard or in the road. We would set them up and we would get some lawn chairs out and keep them company. Back and forth, for hours they would walk and run up and down the driveway. They couldn’t get to the road because there is a sidewalk and the gravel driveway beyond that to keep them honest.

            Shoes were too cumbersome for them and bare feet on a paved driveway was not going to happen so we put them in socks and let them go. Occasionally Drew would wear a hole in the top of his sock.  That’s right, on the top of his foot. He would get going and end up dragging one of his feet while he coasted or he would end up dragging it while he ran but either way, there was a hole in the top of that little sock.

            Our neighbors would smile and wave when they walked or drove by, seeing our kids cruising the driveway. I often wondered if they would venture by to get a better look at the coasters in their walkers. I would’ve, it was hilarious.