Walking Ben

My parents got a puppy (as I'm sure my limited audience is well aware). His name is Ben. He's so darn cute. But he does a great job reminding Dave and me we are not fit to own a dog of our own. At this point in our lives at least. 

See how cute he is!?!?!? This was his first day home. He's growing into his teenage stage already but still pretty cute. 

Anywaaaaays.....

My parents are off gallivanting this week (again) and so I'm helping their friend, Sharon, with Ben duties. The other night while he was here I thought it would be a great idea to take him for a walk with the girls. Dave was beat from a long day at work so I also thought "I'm such a clever and good wife giving Dave a break and an empty house. This is going to be fantastic!" Ha.  

It started off lovely

This is Miriam asking Georgina sweetly if she's okay. "No otay? No otay? No otay." as she rubs her belly. Georgina was completely okay but M uses the word no when she means yes. And when she means no. But that is a whole other story. 

As I was saying, it was all going well but we didn't make it a block before it started to fall apart. 

First, and I blame my mom for this, Ben refused to walk and insisted he ride in the stroller. I'm NOT joking. I had to the find the least resistant child to displace so Ben could have a seat. 

Miriam's smallest. Out you go kid. G loved the change. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until Miriam found a rock bed. 

Backstory: Miriam MUST play in rock beds. She can't just walk past them. She picks the rocks up, throws them, then collects the rocks she's thrown and puts them back. Or she picks them up and hands them to me. Repeat. 

(Photo evidence from other times)

So ya, Miriam found a rock bed and refused to walk further. She had work to do! Georgina didn't like sitting still so she got impatient and jumped out of the stroller. Ben didn't care either way. He was comfy.

I tried to put Miriam back in the stroller while g wandered ahead. Nope. No chance mom. So on we walked. The girls running ahead, Ben in the stroller. I'm not making this up!

As crazy as this is it was working out okay. But then I guess Ben felt he was missing out on all the fun and wanted out too. So now I'm pushing an empty stroller and Georgina, Miriam and Ben can't seem to agree on a direction. Oh boy. The details are complicated and boring. So I'll skip the part where it all fell apart and a neighbour and driver passing by both stopped to laugh at me. "Seems you have your hands full. Har har." I call Dave and ask him to leave his peaceful break and come rescue us from ourselves. 

Daddy shows up and everyone's suddenly a cooperative angel again. Final note: he didn't even have to walk a block to meet us. We were gone 45 minutes and could see our house the whole time. 

To wrap up, here are a couple more pictures of Ben riding in the stroller. Because it really is actually a thing. 

Mom, dad. Should I just pass this stroller onto you when the girls outgrow it?