Say What You Mean

Nathan has been on an exercise kick recently. We take three walks each day, morning, afternoon, and evening. He asks to take more, but we have to draw the line somewhere. He invites us on a walk, and if we seem hesitant, he entices us by telling us everything we'll see along the way. The red bird, the red step, the doggy window (a house with a little dog that barks in the window nonstop), yellow flowers, etc. In the beginning, each time we would come to the end of a block, before crossing the road, I would say, "Let's look for cars." I didn't realize how generic that statement was until Nathan pointed it out to me. He responded with, "There's a car. There's a car. There's a truck." as he pointed to all the vehicles parked in driveways. Next block, I changed my statement to, "Let's make sure there are no cars coming." I thought that was specific enough, but Nathan proved me wrong once again. He responded with, "No trucks too?" He's 100% correct. We have to make sure there are no trucks coming either. Now, each block we say, "Let's make sure there are no cars or trucks driving in the road." So, even after all the discussion on what we do before crossing the road, he knows that he never sets foot in the road under any condition unless he's holding mommy's or daddy's hand. He is such a good kid.  
Nathan's out taking a stroll with his daddy, Major Meissner. He pinned on Major last week. Congratulations, Steve!