Taking Our Time

After dinner tonight, my girls decided they wanted to go on a bike ride.

Even though they are close in age, there are certain things that AC is way ahead of LB on. Riding a bike is one of them.

AC hopped on her Barbie bike, and off she went. I told Chris to hang with her, and I held back with Lily Baker.

LB is just getting the hang of riding her trike. It's the red Radio Flyer that once belonged to Ann Catherine. So as Chris and AC got further and further out of our sight, LB peddled on with me walking right behind her.

We arrived home almost thirty minutes after AC and Chris. In fact, Chris had already bathed Ann Catherine when we walked in the door. And I told him it was probably better that I went with LB.

I am, by no means, the most patient person in the world. But compared to Chris, I am Job. The tediousness of following behind Lily Baker probably would have driven him crazy.

It's not that she was that slow. It's just that - as all three-year-olds - she wasn't in any hurry.

And it was a beautiful thing.

She would stop to pick up a leaf. But stopping to do so required her to take off her helmet, place it on her handle bar, pick up the leaf, break it into pieces, put the pieces in her basket, put the helmet back on, then get back on the bike. You can imagine how long that took. And she did it about five times.

Then we stopped at a neighbor's yard to look inside the hole where their recently chopped tree once stood.

Then we stopped to say hello to birds who were looking for worms for dinner.

Oh, to be like Lily Baker. In no hurry. Not a care in the world. Noticing leaves. Noticing flowers. Noticing people. Noticing birds. Noticing giant holes in someone's yard.

I'll walk behind her any day.