The Long Walk Home

Nope, I'm not referring to the movie from the early 90s, I'm talking about today's family adventure.

Spring has definitely sprung in Coloroado for now. So, we decided to go for a walk on the trails behind our house. The destination we had in mind - some cow pastures about a mile away - is the furthest we've walked with Owen. But, yesterday, Owen and I went on a mini-hike with our new friends Ashley and Cyrus (Cyrus was born on 1/13). Yesterday's walk, though shorter, seemed like a bigger deal because we had to drive to the trailhead. And, that walk went smoothly - Owen slept the whole way once he settled in the Moby carrier. We walked for about 2 hours. So, how hard could a walk behind our house be?

Turns out that it was harder than we expected. It started off great - Owen, being carried in the Moby by Sean, fell asleep within steps of our house.


But then we realized that we forgot his bottle, so I went home to get it. Okay, take 2 - oh no! we forgot the camera. So, I went home to get it (turns out we had it all along - the sleep deprivation has turned our memories into mush!)

It was one of those Colorado days where the sky was perfectly clear. Sean and I were both in T-shirts. Gorgeous! About 3/4 of the way to the cow pasture, Owen started to shift. Then, some little peeps - not quite crying, not quite laughing. So, we thought he was just enjoying the day too. He even smiled...

Then, about 10 steps later - the peeps turned into obvious cries of discomfort. Since we were almost at our destination, we decided to take a break and give him some milk from the bottle. After a few sips, it was obvious that what he wanted was to be lulled back to sleep but he wasn't happy about his position - he wanted to be lying down (not easy in the Moby without taking him out first). But there was no shade in site for a brief rest and we haven't yet bought Owen a pair of sunglasses nor, for that matter, did we put sunblock on his cheeks so we were skeptical about having him out. And, since he had settled down a bit, we thought we'd keep walking to our destination.

To make a long story short, we made it to our destination but... no cows. They were at a different pasture today. We did see pairie dogs and geese and horses but none of that mattered to Owen. He wanted to be home and lying down. And we were about a 30 minute walk home. It took us 45 minutes. We stopped to give him more milk from the bottle. We repositioned him in the Moby. Finally, he settled down when Sean gave Owen a finger to suck on. Note to self: the pacifier - don't leave home without it!

About a block from home, Owen was asleep. Naturally. Of course, his repose only lasted that block. He woke up as we walked up the stairs to our house!

-Marisa