Hiking Madelyn Style

Now that we have little "M" in our lives we have had to make a few little adjustments. As many of you know, any activity with a new baby has to be...well, new baby friendly. The activity can't be too long, to strenuous, too hot, too sunny, too loud etc...So, Spence and I decided that a little hike would be great. We went to Barns and Noble and bought a book called Best Easy Day Hikes. The book highlights 24 different hikes in the area where we live, and each is a couple of miles. We found that Battle Creek Falls was only like 10 minutes from our house. It wasn't too long, too steep, or too sunny, and there was a beautiful waterfall at the end. It was perfect. So we hiked it, and had a lot of fun.







And just a word to those of you who do not have small children, but may be expecting them soon. Going out to dinner to a sit down restaurant may not be the ideal activity for your child. It really doesn't allow for you to calm your screaming child by pacing back and forth with them on your shoulder (assuming this is what calms your child).

Last night we attempted going to Mimi's Cafe for dinner. It was Madelyn's first time in a restaurant, and she decided to show her discontent about 1 minute after we sat down. She gave us very little warning and then started to scream. I couldn't help but get a big smile on my face because I thought that everyone in the room was looking at us, and when I looked up from picking Madelyn up from her car seat, I saw that everyone was looking at us. It was pretty funny. I quickly exited through the nearest door onto the patio eating area and Madelyn calmed down once she was outside. Spence asked our waiter if it was alright if we just ate on the patio. He was very nice and said that was just fine. The best part was all the sympathetic mothers and fathers that walked by us on their way out. Each of them said something like, "oh, babies just get fussy at night, " or "Is this your first?" and "She is so cute."

Thanks to our nice waiter who let us escape to the patio, I would say dinner was a success.