Taking your baby or toddler on a stroller run can be a refreshing experience for both parties. 

Picture it: fresh air, wide open skies, sharing time outdoors together....

Ah, it can be wonderful...

Or it can be just plain miserable.

Picture it: Baby crying, kicking, throwing off gloves and hats, refusing snacks, lurching and refusing to get into the stroller...

Parents, you get it. We've all been there.

After a few failed attempts of setting up the stroller for a run, it's easy to just plain give up.

But keep it up! With a plan and some tricks up your sleeve, your stroller running can become a pleasant part of your day, something that you and baby anticipate with glee.

I compiled the following list based on the experience of running with my two sons.

My oldest son, Avie (now age five), spent four to eight miles (once even 12 miles!) five days a week in our Bob Revolution off-road running stroller from the age of eight months to three years. My husband worked long hours and often got home after dark, so I swapped my regular trail running routine with day runs with Avie. The running lulled him to sleep, he napped for hours, and I enjoyed peaceful, quiet miles of what felt like time alone, year-round, in all weather and temperatures, from zero to 90 degrees, snow and ice to sunshine. 

Now, our youngest son, Grey, 22 months, spends one or two days of three to six miles in the stroller (these days I save most of my miles for the trails, when my husband gets home from work - he now works closer to home, yay!). Unlike Avie, it takes Grey much longer to fall asleep, and sometimes he's wide awake the entire time. Whereas Avie spent his stroller rides in dreamland, Grey spends his thrusting forward to see all the sights, craning his neck back to smile at me or look at the birds in the sky, woofing back to all the dogs, calling "deer, deer, deer," his favorite animal, and reaching his hand out the side for snacks. 

They are two different personalities! But the list of things to do to set yourself up for a successful stroller running experience remain the same. Some of my most cherished memories with Avie and Grey as infants and toddlers are the moments spent running through snowstorms, in the rain (get yourself a stroller weather shield to protect baby from all elements) and in the summer sun.

I hope the list has provided you with the confidence, hope and tools that you need to get outside with your little one. 

Then, one day when they're older, they might love running as much as you do! 

Have you seen the two blogs I've written about running with my kids? 

Five Things I Learned By Running with My Four-Year-Old Son

Five Life Lessons Shared While Running with My Sons

I'd love to hear from you! Please post your stories :) 

Happy running and parenting,
​
​Brynn <3

On Friday, Feb. 15, I taught my regular, weekly 10 a.m. Slow Flow Yoga class at the Uniontown YMCA. 

It was a special day, as all days are.

But to me, 2/15 is always just a little more special.

For one, this year it was the seven-year anniversary of my husband, Eric Harder, and I moving from New Zealand to Ohiopyle, Pa., my hometown, and a place I never dreamed I'd actually settle. But we settled. Because within that year (it was 2012), we became pregnant. Since then, we have had two sons, bought a house and got married <3 :)

Secondly, it was special this year because Eric and I went on a date! We ran four trail miles through Quebec Run Wild Area. We danced over the rocks, said few words and just ran, exactly how we love to spend time (outside, together). 

Third, it was a special day because if my dad were still alive, he would have turned 67. But he passed on June 1, 2013, at age 61.

Yet he continues to visit me in amazing ways. Actually, in miraculous ways. I share the story to inspire you, give you hope and faith, and maybe make you cry a little ;)

I share it because to hold back something so beautiful, so awesome would be a travesty.

Here's part of our story, the peak, I call it:

Dad, I Won the Mount Summit Challenge For You

Here's the rest of our story, but not the end: 

Winning Second Overall Female in the Vermont Infinitus Trail Marathon, with a Little Help from Race Angel Dad

And here's the Slow Flow Yoga playlist I played in class on Friday, 2/15, for our heart-opening flow, for my dad, for my family, for your family, for all the dads, moms, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, whom you love, you've lost, you cherish....

May the hearts and spirits of our loved ones live on, and may we share our light for ourselves and one another, always and forever.

Namaste,
Brynn