Tonight's evening sprint included a rather successful outing in which Julia successfully and rode her Big Wheel from our house to the end of the block and back - about 400% further than she's ever gone before, and with a 100% reduction in meltdowns. She was pretty proud of herself, and I was pretty happy to see her finally start to figure out the complex skills of pedaling and steering that crazy thing. They didn't engineer it for maneuverability. And "plastic treads" is an oxymoron.
Genevieve was a very good sport during all this, mostly toddling along somewhere nearby, evaluating rocks and leaves, shrieking at the ducks, waving at passing cars. She made an occasional break for the pond or the street, mostly so that I'd chase her down and scoop her up, and then she'd let me carry her for a bit. She's been very cuddly with me lately, so this was pretty nice. At one point, I was trying to help Julia remember which pedal to push (the upper one) when I felt a little breeze in my ear. Concentrating, I realized that Vivi was whispering "nummy nummy nummy nummy nummy nummy" in my ear, just like I sometimes whisper in hers while I pretend to nibble on her cheek. Then she giggled and happy sighed happily.