Pre-June-challenge flânage

[nanila]

I took my toddler daughter on an afternoon jaunt in Vienna last week.

We got on the D tram just outside the flat where we were staying, and went two stops to the Opera. We disembarked and waited for the next tram, which happened to be a #2. We got on that, intending to ride to the end, but unfortunately the tram emptied out considerably beforehand. Without an audience to entertain, Toddler Daughter became a bit bored staring at Mama (she was riding in the sling), so we got out at the second to last stop after a 25-minute ride.

This turned out to be just outside the Ottakring U-Bahn station, which is one of the termini of the U3 line. So we went down into the station and boarded an empty train. Toddler Daughter very proudly sat in her own seat across from me for the entire journey. A woman sat next to her at the third stop and stayed on, chatting with us, until we arrived at Volkstheater, where all three of us disembarked.

Daughter and I stopped in the Museumsquartier for a hot chocolate. Afterward, we played on and around the big blue plastic lounge chairs that they put out there in summer. When she finally tired of this, I strapped her back into the sling and we went back to the U-Bahn, where we boarded a packed rush-hour U3 train for two stops to collect her daddy at Stephansplatz, and finally returned to Karlsplatz on the U1.

Comments

[spiralsheep]

I definitely approve of chocolate-powered flanage. :-)

[nanila]

I generally find it to be highly motivational. :D

[nou]

This is great! I've tried doing a bit of flânage with Toby (who is now TWO YEARS OLD OMG), i.e. letting him decide which way to walk, but his main desire at the moment seems to be crossing the road over and over and over again, which is a bit boring for me. We shall persist though!

[nanila]

Aw. I hope he gets the hang of it!

I don't trust Humuhumu with roads yet and she actively resists holding my hand. She does OK on the canal towpath with just a bit of herding, surprisingly - she seems to know to move slowly near the water's edge. Still debating whether or not to get some reins...

[nou]

We have reins, attached to a little tortoise-shaped backpack (one of his nicknames is "tortoise"). He doesn't mind putting them on — when we're going out he reminds me of everything we need, "Toby shoes", "Kake shoes", "coat", "backpack" — though he does complain on the (fairly rare) occasions when I have to use them to stop him walking into someone else's front garden.

Sometimes he's happy to hold my hand, sometimes he isn't. I've decided that as long as he has the reins on, hand-holding is only mandatory when we're crossing the road.

[spiralsheep]

TWO YEARS OLD OMG

ZOMG!

crossing the road over and over and over again

It's good practice for him though, I suppose. They learn so much about the world outside the home when they're two-three.

[nou]

He's such a person now! And he can communicate so well.

I'm not 100% sure how much he's learning about road-crossing at the moment — I'm not sure if it's just coming across as "sometimes Kake makes me hold her hand even if I don't want to". I guess the answer is to persist with it, and at some point he'll have the capacity to understand. If I'm already acting as if understanding is possible, then I don't actually need to know when that point is going to be.