"Walking" with Nils

Last night I decided that Marta and Nils and I should take a walk. It was a beautiful evening, and it was just the 3 of us. As I was putting Marta in the stroller, Nils walked over to his 3 wheeler.
"No, Nils. We are going to walk tonight. You can help me push the stroller."

Obviously he didn't like that idea. He jumped on the bike and started riding. I began to follow him, calling for him to wait for me. He flew out of the driveway and looked back at me with that scary smile of his. I started walking faster. I was sure he would stop at any moment and wait for us to catch up. I was very wrong. He just zoomed along- and he can go seriously fast on that little bike. I began to despise the lovely evening and my stupid idea. I kept yelling for him to stop, but he was completely ignoring me. As I saw him nearing the end of the block, I thought maybe he would stop and wait for me before he crossed the street. We have practiced that. He must have forgotten all that practice. He went right across the street.

It is very difficult to run while pushing a big stroller. Plus the sidewalks are rather bumpy. Poor Marta. She had to listen to me yelling and be bumped around. Then she started yelling at Nils. We were getting close to Steve and Susan's house- some favorite neighbors. Nils always stops at their house to see if they're home. He flew right past their driveway. That really made me mad- I started running again, then went back to walking-it really is horrible to run with that stroller. Plus it looks really stupid to any observers. Of course, the fact that the woman pushing the stroller is yelling at the boy on the bike is pretty noticeable, anyway. We were almost to the end of the street. I started getting nervous, wondering if Nils was going to go out into the street and continue around the corner. He did- the little child sped right into the street even as I yelled at him and for a moment disappeared from my line of vision. That pushed me over the edge. I stopped and left the stroller and ran as fast as I could after him. I think as soon as he had realized that he couldn't see me, he had stopped because he was looking back and getting off of the bike when I saw him. He saw me coming and the smile on his face quickly faded. I grabbed him by the hand and picked up his bike. He got a serious talking to, and I could tell that he knew I was mad. He always gets a very solemn look on his face when he knows I'm really mad. I told him he had to walk back because he was not obeying.

Marta was patiently waiting for us in her stroller. I stuck the bike on the back of the stroller and made Nils walk right beside me. As we headed back down the sidewalk towards home, I was still talking to him about his inappropriate behavior. He knew I was still not happy so he was being pretty quiet. When I finally paused from my lecturing, he put one of his hands in the air and said,
"Well.....um.......I was doing something."

At that very appropriate sentence used at a very appropriate time, I almost lost my serious face. I could feel the corners of my mouth twitching. I really wanted to laugh out loud. The anger was gone, and the cuteness of the boy was getting to me! I managed to hold it together....for a little while longer. I told him that he had been disobeying, and that it was dangerous to go into the street without an adult. Then he said,
"My God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do," (all in one breath- this is his favorite song at the moment). I think I did smile then, although I also brought God into the conversation- we are suppose to obey God, etc.

At that moment, neighbor Steve came driving by and rolled down the window to talk to us.
"Where you were 5 minutes ago?" I said. He looked at me, then at Nils and asked if the bike was broken. I explained the situation and he gave Nils another little talk and went on his way. Then Nils broke out into "My God is so Big" again.

We finally made it home. I was exhausted, Marta was stinky, and Nils... he was fine. We went inside and sat down and ate brownies- a very good remedy for that kind of walk!