With warm weather here — even near the lake — my thoughts are turning to the out-of-doors. Having a 2-year-old boy at home helps that. There’s nothing he likes more than being outside. It’s one of the most reliable requests
With warm weather here — even near the lake — my thoughts are turning to the out-of-doors.
Having a 2-year-old boy at home helps that. There’s nothing he likes more than being outside. It’s one of the most reliable requests each day.
Friday morning was no exception. It was 5:45, and I was getting ready to leave the house for a little while. I’m so careful on mornings like that not to make any unnecessary noise. That day was no different. But as I walked down the hallway, the little guy’s door opened and out he came.
“I just woke up,” he said.
I told him it was too early, and he had to go back and rest some more. He took one look at the light coming through his window shade and said “Go outside?”
I helped him into bed, covered him with his blanket, and sang him a quick song. Then he asked for Ella Fitzgerald — his favorite go-to-sleep song — and I made my exit.
After work, I know he’ll make the same request, to play outside. He loves to color on the driveway, to run in the grass, to watch the birds at the feeder, to point out the ripening strawberries.
Last week, I drew a baseball diamond on the driveway and pitched a big, soft ball toward him so he could hit it with a plastic bat. He loved it, and so did I.
At work I sit right across from a map of Racine and Kenosha counties. The parks are colored bright green. When I look at them, I see just how many open spaces — be it a block in the city or several acres in the west end — there are for people to use. And I haven’t been to most of them.
I’d love to start taking my little guy to explore those places. I grew up in a small town, and we lived far enough outside of it that there were no sidewalks, and nothing to walk to. But we had woods to explore, and a big yard where we could run and play.
The city neighborhood we live in is different. There are sidewalks and fenced yards, with playgrounds a few blocks away. From my desk, those green spaces on the map call out to me.
They’re ripe for exploring: Trails to walk, bugs to find, flowers to see.
What would catch the eye of this curious, outdoor-enthusiast toddler?
Sometimes working at the paper gives me a sense that I know more about Racine than I really do. I feel like I’ve been here a long time — with nearly six years here, it’s the longest I’ve lived in one place since I lived with my parents. When I look at that map, or talk with people who have lived here all their lives, I realize how little I know.
That’s exciting. There’s a discovery to be made in every corner of the county.
As the summer goes on, I’ll take my son to visit some of these places, and will share some of the things we discover in future Mommy Talk columns.
• Mommy Talk is written by Racine, Wis. Journal Times reporters Marci Laehr Tenuta and Janine Anderson, janine.anderson@journaltimes.com. Reporter Mike Moore writes Daddy Talk.
