1000 Islands

Thousands Islands is a nature reserve in Kaukauna. I've been here before. I visited here with Grandpa Muddy and the path in the lower woods I would say is NOT stroller friendly and parts of it are baby carrier friendly. 

This stairway is the way to the "upper woods" of 1000 Islands. The stairway is probably the most baby friendly part of the path. These pathways would probably be best for kids who listen well and can walk pretty well, like the 8 or 9 range or a very well behaved 6 or 7 year old. The outer loop of the trail is about 2.25 miles with a few trails intersecting back and forth so you could make this quite a good hike. 

Who can resist a selfie in the woods???

This is Baby Muddy and myself. I had just gotten done with an overnight shift and figured a quick walk was the best thing to do before going to bed. We did not see even one bit of wildlife because... ahem... someone... ahem baby boy... was being VERY loud! Baby Muddy was very excited the morning of this walk and squealed all the way to the end of the path and back. He had a great time!

Baby and I walked this path below. It's the Valley Bike Trail and runs 1.25 miles. Because even in the carrier, I couldn't walk the trails of the upper woods with Baby Muddy, we stuck to the bike path. The bike path would have been stroller friendly with the very well packed crushed stone/gravel pathway. Though the bike path ran along some homes, it was still quite a scenic walk in the woods.  

Nature in the City

With my teen in drivers ed, it leaves me with a couple hours every morning to find something to do. I started walking near there and after a couple days found this trail through the busy city blocks. It's only about 1.2 miles long and about 2/3 of a mile away from my daughters class but long enough to go down and back a time or two during my daughters two hour class. It took nearly 40 min down and 40 back when I had my little guy in the carrier strapped to my chest, about 3.6 miles that day. I go much slower when he's strapped to me rather than on wheels :).

There are dandelions along the path as well as clover. Lil guy has torn apart multiple dandelions yellow and fluffy ones. Probably eaten a bit of them too. Right now absolutely everything seems to go into his mouth. After a bit of research, clovers are entirely edible too. Tomorrow, we're giving him tons of clovers to tear to shreds and I don't have to worry about him being poisoned since they are safe. Apparently only the flowers taste good and not the leaves.

Somehow though, I managed to sprain my instep. Tomorrow I'm going to try to jog again and hope it doesn't kill me. I had another great walk with a girl from my mom's group this past weekend but my foot hurt after pretty badly so I skipped the run the next day. To her if she see's this post, it was great meeting you! And I hope we get out there again soon once we're both healed :).

Steps for Disentagling From a Sleeping Baby

What could be more stressful than diffusing a live bomb?

Disentangling yourself from a sleeping baby.

Yes, more stressful. First, it's partly because the person disentangling is not just stressed by the situation, but also likely beyond sleep deprived and possibly very badly in need of using a bathroom and about to wet thyself if disentangling doesn't happen.

But, this child is sleeping... ON YOU. Even the smallest twitch of the toe might lead to IMMEDIATE waking and then meltdown of the infant. Screaming and crying will ensue. And it's not JUST a toe you need to twitch, you need to disentangle your WHOLE self. Most likely infant is clinging onto you or your clothing. At least with bomb diffusing you can twitch your toe...

So, step one, if infant is holding onto you or your clothing find a suitable replacement and ever soooooo slowly, slide it between the grasping hand. I find receiving blankets work well when BabyMuddy is grabbing my shirt. Step one can take anywhere from 0 seconds if he's not grabbing for dear life and up to five minutes to pry loose his death grip.

Step two, slowly rotate your whole self and baby until baby is in a position supported by something other than you. Most often baby is clinging my shirt (now hopefully the blanket instead) and resting his shoulder on my head. I rotate from a sitting position to lying on my side being ever so careful to not make any jarring motions or move baby from his position AT ALL. Baby is then also resting on the couch or bed or floor as well as still being against me. Length of step two all depends on baby. If he's sleeping well the rotation is less likely to wake him. Most often taking anywhere from 2-10 minutes.

Step three, remove thyself.
Step three can be the most difficult. Especially if you have entrapped yourself between the object baby is now sort of resting on and the baby. I support baby's butt with my left and his head and back with my right arm. So most often, my right arm now needs to slide out from under baby without waking him. He's a sidesleeper so I slowly move myself away and rotate him from his back to his side and hoping the stars align just right for my luck to not run out before my arm is fully and completely away.

Step four. Back away slowly.
Have you ever heard stories about backing away from an angry bear? Not make any sudden movements and all that? Well, backing away from a sleeping baby is 10 times harder. First, babies are equipped with mom sensors. They know when we've moved more than 6 inches away. If you can leave something with your sent, it might trick baby long enough for you to use the bathroom without him waking and screaming... if you're lucky.

So, step four can be hell. Back away too fast and you could end up back to before step one and bouncing baby back to sleep. Go slowly, if baby moves, HOLD STILL IMMEDIATELY. Sometimes you might have to return to touching baby very lightly and repeating the back away procedure.

Backing away can take the longest of all these steps. It could take another good 10 minutes if it's successful the first time.

Good Luck From,
Another Mom Who Just Wants To Pee Without the Baby Screaming.

It's Above Freezing!!

So, what did I do?

I went for a walk.

But before I went for a walk, I had to get ready to go for a walk. Simple right? Hahahahaha.

Step One: Feed baby so baby doesn't scream the entire walk.

Step Two: Change baby so baby doesn't leak urine on me while we walk.

Step Three: Bundle baby. Yes, bundle the baby that will not sit still because he thinks it's great fun to try to get away when getting is snowsuit on.

Step Four: Attach baby carrier to self. That's easy enough. All these straps, just make sure you connect the straps to the right ends of one another or it's just a tangled mess.

... 10 min later after untangling self and getting straps right...

Step Five: Get wiggly baby into said carrier.

Step Six: Get the dogs leash and loop it around waist (that you can't see because there is a baby in a carrier attached to you).

Step Seven: Yell "WALK" loudly so dog comes running.

Step Eight: Get very hyper dog to sit long enough to attach his leash to his collar.

Step Nine: Get your own jacket on and gloves and hat.

Step Ten: Get out of the house before you realize how badly you need to pee and have to repeat steps 3-9 :).

So Muddoggy was very excited for our walk. It's the first time we've been out walking this year. We have trained him to run up and down the steps so he's not completely without exercise and the back yard is fenced so he runs free out there. But it's still icy outside and getting him to remain calm enough to not tip me and baby over was interesting. Thankfully I've always leashed him to my waist so I always have two hands free to handle him.

Mudbaby really didn't care about the walk. He was in his carrier attached to me and was having a really hard time trying to nap through the walk. He gave it a good try here and there. He'd put his head down on my chest, then Muddog would pull us off one direction or another and Mudbaby would look around like "why am I not crashed out on the floor like it's the drunken night after my 21st birthday?"

As soon as we got home in one piece I spent probably another 10 minutes disentangling myself from the dog and the baby. Muddog excitedly ran outside with extra energy from being so excited that we went for a walk. I put Mudbaby on the floor so I could use the bathroom that I realized I needed to use right after I had everything attached to myself. Once I get out of there, let the dog in, and head back in by baby... yep... crashed out on the floor like a drunken college kid who couldn't make it to the couch.

Now where's my nap?