sleigh rides

One of my favorite parts of being a mom-at-home is spending time outside with my little guy. Ari loves to wander around the farm, and our walks are a big part of the rhythm of the days. With the season change we were having a hard time staying with this ritual, as the mud and slush and general yuckiness was making it hard for Ari to walk, and for me to be inspired about being out and about with him. But now that the snow is here to stay, we are back in the groove and loving our outside time. Once the dreaded bundling is complete, we head out the door singing our going-for-a-walk-song. Our rhythms are greatly inspired by the Enki idea of singing through transitions- and it works so well!


Ari leads the way, usually straight to the chicken house, where he calls out "egg, egg, egg!" until I open the gate. We usually end up following the cats around for awhile- there are two frisky young ones who like to race up and down trees and leap around and keep Ari giggling. Once he's tired of walking we go and get the sled and the blanket and bundle him in (he loves that part!) and we are off.

And I love this part. I pull him down the driveway and into the forest and we watch the birds ("deedeedee" he calls out to the chickadees,) and listen to the creak running under the ice and test out all the echos by calling out our names. I see things differently with him, the beauty seems clearer and deeper when he is the one pointing it out, and he keeps me out of my head and right there with him. Today he kept pointing at the trees saying "moonstar!" and he was right, the ice crystals on the branches looked just like the sparkling night sky.
Once we are both tired out we head inside for lunch (after kissing those sweet red cheeks- no photoshop there, that rosy cuteness is all his own,) and then I take the dozy boy to bed. Because all that fresh air makes a baby tired. That's the idea anyway.