Out and about

Regular readers here will know that Jake is a true outdoorsman and likes nothing more to spend hours looking at the trees. I'm still not sure what it is that sends him into the calm zen state that being outside does. Maybe it's the hypnotic movements of the trees, maybe it's the feel of the breeze on his face or maybe it's the sheer number of things to look at. In any case, it's a sure fire way to keep him happy, and as he grows I'm always on the lookout for ways to be outside with him.

Christmas time saw two new purchases to help feed his outdoor action. The first was that of a running stroller (an American term I know, but I prefer it to running pushchair and I'm in a situation to pick and choose!), a three wheeled pram specifically designed to go running. The front wheel is able to completely spin through 360 degrees meaning that it will never get stuck and allows the runner to make tight corners. Jake sits in a semi-reclined position with a nice big sunshade over the top (which has a flap that I can lift to check on him). One of the best features is that it has a huge amount of storage underneath meaning that it's perfect to run to our nearest shop (a mile away or so) or for his diaper bag on longer journeys.

After a lot of research, we found it online and with Christmas money from my Gran (thanks Gran!), we've taken to the streets, including doing my beloved 5k parkrun for the first time since Jake was born. It's a little harder to run with it as your arms are in a static position the whole time, plus you've got a 20lb weight to consider on the up and downhill sections. Despite that, I'm loving being able to combine my two favourite things at one time.

The other purchase (actually a present from my wife's parents, thank you!) is a baby backpack. This wonderful device is like a regular backpack with a gap in the middle for Jake to sit in. This replaces our old front bearing baby carrier which whilst useful was also starting to cause us back problems (and gave me an insight into what it felt like to be pregnant!). Jake's still slightly unsure when he sees the backpack, but once he's in it, I get an earful of cheerful burbling over my shoulder. It's meant that we could take him out into the snowy woods near my wife's parent's home and allows us to explore Leeds a little more.

Knowing that we were going to get this for Christmas, I wanted to find a good test for it. I had seen signposts for the Leeds Country Way in various places before and decided that this was the right time to make a start. It's a 62 mile loop around the whole of Leeds and rather than filling up this blog with the details, I've started another one at http://walkingtheleedscountryway.blogspot.co.uk/ to record each of the 12 legs and to put up the photos as we go.

In short, these two items have made a big difference to the way that Jake and I spend time together. I like being able to take him outside, show him beautiful parts of the world and know that we'll be doing this for decades to come.