Student Driver

For the past two nights Tony has had to work late. Which means that by the five o'clock hour, the longest and most dreaded hour in our household, I'm beat. It also means that we usually eat an early dinner which then means that I have the dreaded 6:30 to 7:30 to fill before I can put the kids to bed without a sense of guilt.

I came up with the brilliant idea of going for a walk and letting Jacob ride his tricycle. Oh, excuse me, his truck. He is firmly convinced that his tricycle is a truck just like daddy's and he calls the step on the back his "twailer". It is so real to him that we even had to stop once tonight so that he could pantomime hooking up the trailer. It was very cute.

Our mile or so walk is a great way to get out, burn that last burst of energy and  . . . make me almost crazy. Do you know the dangers of letting your little boy ride his trike out in the big, wide world? They are numerous- treacherous ditches, storm drains, mailboxes and trash cans. This being trash day, it was like an obstacle course out there tonight. Then, of course, there are the many distractions that can drag a 30  minute walk out to an hour- dirt, pine cones, bugs, and of course, stopping to get "gas". Jacob is obsessed with that. And he has to fill up Kaylen's car too, not just his.

The biggest problem we are running into, though, is that Jacob seems unable to pedal without watching his feet. So, he might be moving forward, but he ain't looking forward, he's looking down! Which results in wild swerving as he looks down, looks up, corrects, looks down, looks up, corrects, looks down...And the wild swerving of course, makes me crazy. And nervous. And dizzy.

It's so bad, that he pedaled into a mailbox yesteday and a trash can today. All I can say is, thank goodness we have 14 years for him to practice before he really starts to drive because he is going to need every minute of it. Yikes.