People ask me all the time how I manage to stay fit and train for the marathon I am running this Sunday while also staying home with two little ones.

The answer? Juggling. A lot of it. Well, that and a good jogging stroller.

Recently, however, my 2.5-year-old daughter has declared the jogging stroller old news and prefers to walk beside me. While I appreciate that she gets exercise and also like the fact that she is fast on her feet and can go for miles (yes, miles. She has walked up to three miles with me before!), I also need to get my run in if I have any hope of being fast for this thing.

Enter her new “favorite toy” and the love of my life:

This is a Kickboard Scooter and is technically designed for children 3-5, but for my daughter, who is way too young for a razor scooter (even their younger model with three wheels), this is perfect.

We are using the scooter to teach her about helmet safety and she is pretty good about understanding that the helmet goes with the scooter. Hopefully this little lesson will take her into her school years (we also insist she use it with her wooden balance bike, which I will talk about more when she is old enough to really ride it).

The thing I like best about this scooter is that she can really go fast on it, but I am not worried about her at all. She steers it by shifting her weight as opposed to turning her hands, which might throw her off balance on a real scooter. She loves it because she gets to feel like a big kid and it makes her feel independent.

Plus, it just looks cool. She loves to tell people about, “my scooter! My scooter” and I love that it keeps both her (and me) active. It is also great for those of use who live in the city. She can take it on short walks to the store or the bakery and I don’t have to worry about jamming a giant stroller through the aisles.

If your kid can walk and has started protesting the stroller, look into this scooter. It has made my life infinitely easier.