into the forest

I wasn't planning on taking the boys outside this afternoon- they'd been out already and we had inside plans, but Dorian, who is going through the difficult transition of giving up his nap (for good this time it seems,) was having a rough afternoon. It sounded something like this: "Mama! I don't want my pants on. No paaaaaaants!" then, after pulling them off, "I'm too chilly! I'm TOO CHILLY! I want my pants! Noooo! Don't help me!" then, after struggling to get them back on and wobbling around with two feet in the same pant leg, "Mama! Put my pants ooooonnnnnn! I need my paaaaaaants!" Then, as I helped him "Nooooooo! Too Bunchy! TOO BUNCHY!" Clearly the craft project was going to have to wait. I briefly considered parking him in front of a video just to distract him from himself, but the sun was shining and we all needed some air. I got them dressed (the process sounding quite like above,) pulled the chariot stroller out of the woodshed, plunked the grumpy toddler inside and we headed down the road.We ended up at a little patch of woods we haven't explored much lately, where the snow has melted. We could smell the forest waking up- the cottonwood buds and the thawing earth and the first green plants.

The dried mango I'd shoved in my pocket on the way out the door made a grand picnic on a spruce root bench. The boys found a snag with loose bark and set to work building a fairy house. We wandered through the woods until we could hear the cars coming back to the property with the end of the work day. We headed back to the edge of the woods where we'd left the stroller and loaded it up with the treasures we found- spruce cones, cow parsnip stalks, cottonwood branches. The tired toddler chirped happily from his chariot seat as we made our way back home. My children need me to remember this: get outside. breathe it in. the forest sets things right.