A Walk with Peter

Lately, Peter and I have been walking to pick up the kids after school. In the last few weeks that we have been doing this, I've realized how Peter is subject to routines. Almost every day he does the same things, takes the same detours, wants to play the same games, sing the same songs. Today I decided to take pictures to document some of his routines.

 

He frequently likes to play games while we walk. He'll ask, "In what movie does the main character....." and I have to guess the movie. Or I'll think of a movie and he'll have to guess it. Sometimes he asks me to sing the "ants go marching" song while we walk.

 Peter discovered a detour - up the steps, following a sidewalk up to a door, and another path back out to the sidewalk. 

He straddles a sidewalk crack and wants to race. (I'm not allowed to say "go". He has to do that.)

He always has to climb these steps and jump off the top. (I usually hold his hand so I can catch him if he loses his balance.)

These two trees (or is it one that divides in the ground?) provide a fun obstacle to climb through.

It's fun to jump over the bigger rocks in this rock bed.

Peter likes to collect souvenirs along the way.

Here he is holding his treasures: a pine needle and a pine cone. Today he wondered why that pine cone looked red.

Peter likes to practice his reading and number recognition skills. This sign has been there long enough for him to memorize the phone number at the bottom.

He likes to balance on this low wall. I usually hold his hand to help him keep his balance. 

Here he is on the way home, visiting with a friend.

The journey home isn't usually as fun. By then he is tired and ready to be home again. (It's over a mile and a half round trip, but it's almost entirely down hill coming home.) Today he was cold and started to cry when he thought he had lost his pine cone. (He had given it to me to hold when he was trying to put on my mittens, and I had put it in my pocket.) No matter how tired he appears on the walk and how much he begs to be carried, he always seems back to his normal energetic self as soon as we arrive home. It makes me wonder if the complaining and dragging is part of his routine as well.