Familiar Turf

I hit up my old running route this evening. Susan has been at a conference the last couple days, so she's been coming home a little later than usual...just in time to put Noah to bed. We remembered last night how bad it is to do our exercise streak after dinner - so tonight, right after we put Noah down, I went for a run while Susan used the elliptical in the basement. Two things came to mind while running: (1) I really hate running and (2) if i have to run, I liked running with Baxter the dog a lot more than not running with Baxter the dog. He just turned 3 last week, as a matter of fact - and we're coming up on one year since we gave him away. I have no doubt that we made the right decision - he's with a wonderful family that loves him - but I do miss him. He definitely brought energy to everything - most usefully, on my runs last year during May! I grabbed a few groceries on the way home from picking Noah up. When we got home, I plopped him down to play so I could put them away. Not less than two minutes go by, and, much to my surprise, Noah comes walking into the kitchen pushing his walking toy proud as proud can be. This kid is on a roll right now, figuring things out everyday. It really is amazing to us...I mentioned last night that it was only just over two weeks ago that he learned to pull to stand. What I didn't add was how frustrated we were becoming with his progress. He had been butt-scooting for 5 months, and, while he would walk while holding our hand, he wasn't showing too much interest in pulling up. We were worried that he was too content being upright while butt-scooting and may not be motivated to stand. How wrong we were! I'm sure it's the same with most kids, but we have nothing else to compare too. With Noah, it seems like every time we've started to get familiar with the way he goes about doing something, sometimes wondering how he'll ever figure out how to do it like other kids, he does. He keeps moving on...so we must too. Tomorrow, I'll skip the familiar turf - a different running route for sure!