avocado8

How Many Calories Does a Jog Home Burn?

Here I am with a long list of things to blog about, and Lori just reminded me of another one by commenting on the Flickr photo below.

On Saturday, after a long day for both me and Al (I'll get to that in two other posts, both on my list) and a bit of dinner together, I proposed that we go for a family walk to Capogiro. Al said he was too tired to go, and the Beaner and I should go without him. (I think he was dying to get rid of us so he could nap.)

We usually take the tricycle to Capogiro, but tonight I took the black stroller because Al had mentioned that the Beaner was wiped out from playing at the water park. I figured if he dozed off while we were out, I'd just get a cookie somewhere and walk back.

The Beaner didn't doze off, however; he seemed as hyper as ever, and couldn't wait to get out of the stroller to pick out his gelato when we arrived at Capogiro. He asked to taste some Fig, and then decided he would have a small cup of 1/2 Fig, 1/2 Papaya. (He asked for chocolate, but since the chocolate has dairy in it, it was a no-go.) I should have told the gelato woman to go easy with the scoop—how big a small is really depends on how heavy-handed your server is, and since it was just the two of us and I wanted something different, it would have been better if she'd skimped a bit.

Anyway, I set the Beaner up at a table with his overflowing Fig/Papaya cup while I tried to decide whether I just wanted a cookie, or an ice cream sandwich. The guy behind the counter recommended the ginger gelato-spice cookie sandwich, so I went with that. He was right: it was EXCELLENT... but it was also HUGE, definitely enough for two people. (Al and I have gotten the smaller round cookie sandwiches that come two to a pack and been totally satisfied with one apiece, and this rectangular confection was at least the size of two round cookie sandwiches.)

The Beaner ate part of my cookie and all of his gelato; I couldn't help him with it, as Al usually does, because I was so busy trying to figure out how to get finish my cookie sandwich. Ideally I would have taken half home to share with Al, but it was over 90 degrees out, and home was a little over half a mile away, so that wasn't going to happen. I also could have abandoned half of it—that would have been the sensible thing to do—but the damn thing was so good that it seemed like sacriledge to leave any of it behind. I remarked to the Beaner as we shoveled our treats, "we're going to have to run home to make up for this."

I was as good as my word. As we washed up and prepared to leave, the Beaner said, "I don't want to get in the stroller; I want to walk." I said, "honey, we're going to RUN, remember?" I grabbed his hand and said Go!, and the two of us took off up 20th Street. I paused at the intersections more because it was awkward to run while pushing the stroller with one hand, holding the Beaner with the other so he didn't trip, and wearing my purse (shoving it under the stroller helped) than because I was tired... at first. Eventually even jogging at Beaner pace became a little strenous, and the only reason I kept it up was because he was so obviously enjoying it. "Let's run some more, Mommy! Again!"

I finally wore him out at 20th and Arch, when, after a long downhill run, he grabbed the stroller and threw his body in front of it. "I need to get in the stroller," he panted. "But you can still keep running. Here, buckle me." I did, without demanding that he say please, though I did put my foot down and wait for the niceties when he yelled, "RUN, MOMMY!" He did eventually say, "please can you run, Mommy?", so I indulged him. I'm not sure it worked off the gelato sandwich, but now Al and I have a goofy shorthand for "gah, I'm tired":

"Phew, I need to get in the stroller."