Adventuring with Kalina

Kalina's first canoe ride!

One of the coolest things about early childhood is that kids run around unfettered by social pressures, customs and influences--except those that you teach them or allow, anyway. 

 To me, this means that I can let Kalina develop confidently into herself--whoever she's going to be--for a few years without anyone trying to change her. And because I'm there for almost every one of her waking minutes, I also get to watch as my little flower blossoms.

Of course, you never really know what type of kid you have until your baby becomes a toddler and it becomes clearer every day that no, you won't be able to convince her that playing in a sandbox with even 1 other child or even an ant is fun, but that you also won't have to worry about her skateboarding off of a diving board.



Canoeing is serious business.



And yet, we still somehow thought Kalina would enjoy canoeing, an activity we'd been talking up since last year.

Having been watching the weather for several weeks now for a good opportunity, this past Sunday afternoon turned out to be the perfect one. Days earlier, we'd asked Kalina if she'd like to ride in the canoe.

"No, there will be spiders," she replied. And sometimes there are--the canoe lives in our backyard, which is the known range of lots of arachnids. Probably thousands, maybe millions. Kalina knows this full well.

"What if Daddy gets all the spiders out?" Daddy asked.

"No, there will still be spiders," insisted Kalina, apparently lacking confidence in her daddy's abilities to rid the world of the fell creatures.

Kalina kept at least 1 hand on her hat
at all times so it wouldn't blow away.

"What if Daddy absolutely positively promises that there will not be a single spider? Then would you like to go out in the canoe?"

"Yes!" the girl exclaimed, taking him at his word.
And so after naps on the perfectly still, 70-degree afternoon, we packed up a boatload of stuff and headed to the EPA lake, bringing Grandpa along, too (actually, he brought himself along since we can only fit 2 adults and 2 kids in my car).

Elise and I sat under a shady tree and played with the pretty grass while Kalina got suited up in her pint-sized life vest and forgot about her "friends" (Big Duck, Little Duck and Frog) long enough for me to hide them away in the stroller so Daddy wouldn't have to fish them out of the lake at any point during the afternoon.

I took a million pictures. There's almost nothing cuter than a toddler in a life vest getting ready to hop into a canoe. And besides, isn't it my job to be Kalina's own personal photographer and videographer? The girl seemed pretty excited--although more in the serious "now, I'm going canoeing" sense than in the "I'm thrilled to be here!" sense.
And then it was time to push off. Elise and I were watching from a bit of a distance, as I didn't want to off-road downhill toward the lake too far with our stroller, on which neither of the brakes works. That didn't stop me from snapping more pictures. Grandpa got in first, and then Kalina was lifted into the canoe by her Daddy. Then Matt pushed off and hopped in himself, sitting on his own seat and securing Kalina on a little stool he'd put right in front of him.

I took more pictures, and finally they were off!

Grandpa caught a fish, thus saving
the day for Kalina.

I wasn't privy to much of the conversation in the boat. What I did see: Matt paddling around, Grandpa fishing (and catching two fish!) and Kalina being prodded to turn toward me for pictures whenever I held the camera up. What I did not see: Kalina smiling, Kalina happily pointing, or Kalina clamoring to help paddle. I got some video, and pushed Elise along the path circling the lake as we followed the action (or lack thereof).

All too soon, I started to catch sounds of the all-too-familiar, "We'll be done soon. Just a few more minutes," as Daddy tried to turn an 8-minute canoe ride into a 12-minute canoe ride.

Elise in the big girl stroller seat!
It was fun getting to hang out
with my littlest!

And then my toddler was offloaded onto the shore. Did she have fun? No. Would she like to go again? No. A short time later, the girls and I were on our way home for supper, baths and bedtime while the guys stayed out and fished longer.

In the car, I asked Kalina whether she liked canoeing. "Some parts were good and some parts were bad," she replied. The girl has a wisdom all her own. She liked the fish, I found out, but not the way the canoe "tips back and forth." And she's willing to go out in a more steady boat sometime in the future.

We're pretty sure there will, in fact, be more adventures with Kalina in store for us. However, never without a sun hat, plenty of snacks, a stuffed friend or two, and the promise of coming home to a nice, comfy house.