I know, that even as I write this, it is more than a tad chilly outside.

But that chill has the turned the corner into spring chill. It has started raining. NOT SNOWING!!

And I’m believing that it is officially spring.

So, I’ve got this little routine with the babies. Every Thursday, I take them on a walk down to the end of the street (app. 1 1/2 miles) to see the flower garden in the mini park come up. Along the way, we collect curiosities–pine cones, seed pods, sticks, etc.

I push Esteban in the stroller, and make Joy walk all the way down, then put her in behind Esteban for the way up. Yesterday, we took Xay, too, because he wasn’t here on Wednesday morning for his run with Mommy. (Xay had invited himself to William’s house for one of those delicious middle-of-the-week sleepovers on Tuesday night).

Xay made the walk more interesting, but not always in a good way. First of all, he started picking fights with Imani, to the point where she started lagging behind the stroller, instead of what she usually does, which is keep right near me at all times. I made them patch it up, and they got on better.

As usual, Joyous was very interested in all the new flowers. Last week, we saw crocuses, including some in our yard. This week, there were lots of miniature daffodils, and some yards had violets. Joy would lag back, just enthralled with what she found.

She has a cardboard banker’s box in the garage for all the treasures she collects on walks.

Imani is jealous of the box, and insists on ‘helping’ Joy collect treasures. Joy usually rejects her sister’s finds out of hand, which is her perogative. So, yesterday, she spied this little prickly pine frond riding in the little tray on the stroller where I collect these things, and was like, “What’s that? I don’t like it!”

Xay picked up a couple of sticks. He found one shaped like a gun, and a ‘walking stick.’ Imani thought this would be a great idea, and proceeded to walk slower, flailing sticks around. Xay swung that so called walking stick around until I had to show him how to actually use a walking stick.

Everyone (except probably Xay) was thrilled to see tiny red tulips blooming in the garden at the end of the street. I promptly put Joy in the stroller, and she protested, “I didn’t want to ride in the stroller, Mommy. I wanted to look at flowers.”

So, I pushed the stroller a little slower and pointed out every flower on the way home. Esteban got a kick out of seeing the flowers, too.

We were about halfway home when I told Mani to ditch the stick. She dug in her heels and tried to refuse. I dug in my heels and insisted. Reluctantly, she dropped the stick in the middle of the street, complaining that she really liked it. I reminded her that I had promised her on the last walk (when I wouldn’t let them collect anything) that she could have a white stick on the way home.

By now, Mani and Xay were tired and ready to go home. Home was right down the street. . . a piece. So, they had to keep on walking to get what they wanted.

Mani lagged way behind. I pointed out violets to Joy and Esteban. Then, Mani ran up to us and said, “Mommy! This is what’s inside of the bean pods! It’s what makes the rattle sound!” She showed me three shiny brown beans.

I was surprised that she would take the time to find this out, and then she showed Joy how to. Imani wanted to open Esteban’s pod for him, but I thought it would be wiser to let him try to figure out how to do that (all the better to keep him from eating the beans!) Joy and Esteban were thus occupied for the rest of the walk, occassionally passing back beans or parts of pods for me to hold onto.

When we got to the white tree, Imani ran up to the biggest double branch she could find on the ground. I told her to put that down! She wasn’t taking that big old stick home. She was whining, “Why?” When Xay ran over and grabbed it and pronounced it a Gandolf stick.

I gave Mani a decent sized stick, and collected some of the bark she had flaked off another stick. Now about a block from home, Xay was making jokes like, “We only have 2 more miles to go! We only have 3 more miles! We only have. . . ”

Mrs. Baca, my math teacher from 7th and 10th grade lives on the corner of our block. She’s been burning sticks in the vacant lot beside her house for the past two days. It looks like it should at least be in a barrel, but she seems to have kept it contained. Our neighbor, Tissie was talking to her, and a van had stopped to talk to them both. I kind of nodded at Mrs. Baca, said hi to the family running by, and the driver of the van as I moved our little caravan to the middle of the street to go around the van.

Tissie didn’t stop talking long enough to say hello, which was fine with me, as she always has something almost rude to say about me being pregnant again. Spring time is when my neighbors usually find out I have a bun in the oven. It’s been such a regular occurance since we moved here. It’s my fourth pregnacy in this house!

When we got back home, Xay deposited his white stick in the back yard, while Mani made a bee-line for the treasure box. I discretely put the offending pine sprig in the box along with our other treasures, but I thought we should bring the beans inside–they look like small kidney beans.

During all the bustle with jackets and shoes when we got back in the house, Esteban put a bean in his mouth. He spit it right out, making a face.