One of the joys of backpacking or hiking with a toddler is the sound you hear in your ear while walking down a trail. My daughter asks many questions (what plant is that? where is the river going? was that a bird flying in there?) as well as exclaims over the wonders she sees in the woods (oh, the moon! what a beautiful day! there’s a magnolia tree! its a long way to the tent). It is an almost steady stream of talking.
But the singing is what lifts my spirits the most. Sometimes she makes up bedtime songs for the trees and the birds, sometimes she sings about what is going on and where we are going, and sometimes she sings songs she has heard before. We managed to get one of those times on video…