Perks of being an Aunt

This past weekend I nannied for my sister, and got to spend all day with my nephew. Whenever I see him I have been trying to take it every possible moment possible because he changes so quickly, becoming almost an entirely new kid each visit I have. For example, two weeks ago he could barely get up on his hands and knees and there was no chance he could start to crawl, but now he’s movin’ and groovin’. He is able to follow you around the house, he is quickly learning to explore and he has begun to pull up on anything and everything within his reach.

My sister mentioned taking him to the park, and I got so excited at the prospect of bringing him outside sitting him in a swing, and stomping through piles of leaves together. Throughout my blog posts, there’s been a trend of connecting nature and the outdoors to incredible memories of nature and seeing that I want to start making outdoor memories with Dax as soon as possible.

As I pushed him in the stroller narrated our walk to the park. I told him about the squirrels that scampered across our path and that they were likely going to find food so that they could get big and warm for winter. I brought up how weird the weather was, it looked pretty out but it was hot and humid outside. I also decided to explain what humidity was and that it was pretty unusual to be so warm this late in the year. I mentioned the colors of the leaves that continued to get stuck in the wheels of the stroller and because he appeared so curious about them I knew that we would have to explore the leaves once we arrived.

When we got to the park I immediately began to think of the preservation versus accessibility debate. As I was trying to maneuver the stroller under a tree to sit and rest for a moment I soon realized that traveling over the grass and dirt was not the ideal path to take given the extra load I was pushing around. So, I was is limited by the confines of the sidewalk because I had was pushing my nephew through the fields was a task I simply wasn’t up to.

In out discussion of preservation versus accessibility I was primarily considering accessibility from the perspective of either the general public being able to access or the limitations afforded by disability of some sort, I never really considered the idea that youth could limit the places that a person could explore. As a kid I was incredibly lucky to be surrounded by spaces where I could safely get off of the beaten path and find my way in nature, but it's an uncommon phenomenon for a child to have free reign of a forest.

The importance of both preservation and accessibility were clearly laid out in front of me and while a physical disability or general lack of a may not have prevented me from showing my nephew nature the possibility of accessibility for families in those with children is highly impacted by the space is available, and the ease of which they can explore them.

With this on my mind I made my way back to the sidewalk and we continued our adventure to the park.

We swung and we stomped in the leaves and had access to all the fun we could handle.