Monday, January 5, 2009

Walking in the Winter with our Toddler

We have made a lot of progress on walking with H since we posted about it five months ago. H has gotten older and is more physically skilled and she's gotten a lot of practice at walking. Some credit for this has to go to her grandma who is more likely to walk with her than we are because she doesn't like using the stroller.

H can now easily walk a half-mile or so (without driving us completely crazy). This means that she can walk to the closest subway station or the bus stop and back, which makes trips without the stroller a possibility. She can make it longer distances, but gets tired coming back, so we still aren't walking to Davis Square (about three-quarters of a mile away) without bringing the stroller as backup.

We also aren't walking to daycare because we want to get there quickly, so on snowy days I usually take H to and from daycare in the Ergo which makes my back pretty unhappy. However, I neglected to bring the Ergo during the last snowstorm and we walked to Porter Square which, in the snow, was a major accomplishment. We then did some shopping and took the 77 bus up Mass Ave and walked the quarter of a mile or so home. H was a trooper, but she did get tired by the end and I carried her some of the way.

This morning Dorea and I were thankful for our YakTraks as walking was challenging on the ice. I'm really wishing they made them for toddlers, so if you know of a ice traction device for toddler, please leave a comment.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have yet to see a traction in ice footware for kids. However, take a pair of sneakers or somilarly soled shoes and use a screw driver to twist in 1/4" sheet metal screws on the treads. The soles should be think enough that they don't go through. This is a trick thrifty runners use on iceThey fall out over time so monitor and replace as needed...she'll need a separate pair to change into for daycare though..

Angela V-C said...

OK, that is a really good idea. Maybe we'll try walking in the snow tomorrow with newly tricked-out shoes...

Anonymous said...

:) runner tricks are a good thing. Let me know how it works. Try using a power screwdriver

MilWifGarMom said...

How did this work out for you (using the screws on the shoes/boots)? I'm considering it for my toddler this coming winter and would like to know how well or not it worked for you.

Angela V-C said...

Actually, it didn't work that great. It was fine for a little while, but the screws fell out too quickly. So I can't say I was that happy. I was looking around again for products for purchase and ran across this: http://www.kahtoola.com/microspikes.html

Expensive, but might be worth a try. If you do find anything that works well, please let us know!