such a long time coming

Today I passed my drive test. This has been such a long process for me. It's been over ten years since I had a license. There's so much I want to say about driving and fear, and overcoming. About living most of my adult life and all of my almost five years as a parent without driving and how that's shaped my life and my family. About my plans for driving in the future, how much and where and when. But that will come later. I just had to say, I did it. Finally.

walk with a toddler

Today it took us one hour and seventeen minutes to walk home from Brixton's music class. At my own pace, alone or with a willing child in a stroller it takes me about fifteen. In a car it takes five. But the stroller is on the outs these days. Someone has decided he's too big for it, and that is the end of that discussion. So today he pushed the stroller home by! self! And I took some deep deep breaths and reminded myself that we had no real plans, and if lunch and nap were a little later, oh well. His job right now is to explore and discover the world and if he wants to spend five minutes ripping up leaves, well he's learning. ( By the end though I was carrying him and pushing the stroller at the same time. Oof, my arms!) 
And we did eventually make it home. Now where's the ice cream?