Short Legs, Shorter Attention Span

  Layla is small for her age and although completely healthy, her doctor projects she’ll be just shy of five feet when she’s done growing. How they look at a three year old and determine this, is a little crazy to me, but tall or average or short it makes no difference to us. 

  Sure there have been drawbacks: she was already walking by the time she could properly bounce in her bouncer, it was hard to find underwear that fit  when she was potty trained and- what I think are- giant sized toddlers are constantly running her over at daycare. While riding in a car, it's possible Layla may by law have to sit in a booster seat until she is twelve years old.

  But there have been perks to having a munchkin as well.

  Strangers always think she is quite advanced for her age, she is slow to grow out of clothes and she has been small enough to be carried longer than most in the kid carrier.

   Nowadays underwear fits fine but I’m not sure I will be able to carry her 28 pounds on my back this summer.

  And so this year’s hiking will be a test of parental patience…

     Driving up the canyon is always a welcomed re-boot- especially in the winter when jaunts up  are few and far between.  And on an unseasonably warm January day we headed up to Hewlett Gulch to take the first hike of 2014. Not only the first hike of the year but the first hike with Layla out of the kid carrier and on the ground.

  We parked in the parking lot, opened the door only to find it had turned way too windy to hike with a three year old. And so back in the car we retreated to town where it wasn’t windy at all. We settled on Lee Martinez Park where we successfully turned a five minute walk down the Poudre Trail to Salyer Open Space into an hour excursion.

  She has short little legs and an even shorter attention span.  You have to admire her inquisitive mind and determination to investigate every stick, rock, shadow and puddle. Although as Court said, it might take six days to hike Horsetooth Rock.

  After our walk and the swings the cold front found us there too and we retreated back indoors, where we've been ever since. Our first hike of 2014 will have to wait for another day and I think we now have a better idea of what we are in for this summer.