Puddles, Strollers and Laughter

Last night the girls were getting rowdy and cranky (Alli was not happy about waiting for Daddy to have cupcakes), so I took them on a meltdown-prevention walk (everyone is happy when we go for walks). Alli wanted to push her baby doll in the little doll stroller, and I was fine with that; it would make her extra tired.

So we set out at Alli's pace. I pushed Ruby in the stroller and Alli pushed her stroller.

Yesterday afternoon there was some rain, and in the evening there were still puddles, especially by the street curbs. We crossed a few small puddles. No problem.

We had to cross a street, and there was a bigger puddle in our way. As I stepped across pushing Ruby, I turned around to see if Alli had crossed too. She hadn't. She did not want her stroller to get wet in the muddy puddle.

A car was waiting at the stop for us to cross.

I stepped back while holding the big stroller so it wouldn't roll back into the puddle. I was straddling the puddle as gracefully as I could. I grabbed Alli's baby doll stroller and lifted it over the puddle while Alli fussed about keeping it dry. Once I got the doll stroller across, and while still holding the big stroller, I took Alli's hand to help her jump over the puddle. To my surprise, she slowly and deliberately walked through the big, dirty puddle, one small step at a time.

The car waiting for us was a convertible. Top down. There were two men in the car laughing out loud and cheering Alli on. They didn't seem to mind us taking our good old time crossing the street. They laughed the whole time.

Alli pushed her dry stroller the rest of the way in soggy wet shoes.