Chase!

Gus's favorite game these days is chase. It is one of the first things he wants to do in the morning and definitely the first thing he wants to do when I get home from work each afternoon. Typically, he will let me chase him until I can't go any longer. Between the two of us, we still haven't reached his threshold. This morning, I decided to make an effort to chase him until HE wanted to stop.

Our normal route is a loop, running from the kitchen, to the back entry room, into the jack/jill bathroom, through our bedroom, into the dining room and completing the loop back in the kitchen. I measured it just for fun. The loop is approximately 70 feet. Thankfully, Gus prefers that I stand on the back of his tricycle and push myself while he runs ahead of me.

The end result: 62 laps. Of course, things start to blur together when you're running the same course that many times, but I feel pretty comfortable with that number.

He ran for the first 46 or 47 laps and then finally started walking after that. So, I believe that means that he ran more than half a mile! I tried to surreptitiously drop off the tricycle at about lap 53 (my quads were burning), but he caught me and asked me to get back on. In the late 50s, I asked if he was ready to stop b/c he was walking so slowly and he replied, "We're not done yet." In the end, he was distracted by a siren outside. After the emergency siren faded away, he asked to chase again. I wasn't surprised, but I just couldn't do it.

He talked on every lap. We were various Thomas the Train characters along the way. At one point, we were each Zoom, Zoom Bully (a character from one of his books; don't buy it if you can avoid it!). We each got several "tickets" along the way for going too fast. Somewhere towards the conclusion, I ended up with a police SWAT hat on.

He is an amazing little fella. I only wish we had the patience and energy to play with him the way he wants and deserves. We love you, Gus Man.