It's a beautiful day

I took the kids to the playground this afternoon—for the first time in what feels like ages. I also brought a laptop so I could get some writing done because I have a number of writing projects that I'm absolutely choking on at the moment (that I really need to get going on). 

This evening Rachel walked in on me while I was transferring things from the laptop to my desktop computer (there's no internet at the playground, so I drafted offline and then just...brought the computer to my desk) and she said, "Huh. Do you have enough screens there? Could I bring you an iPad or something?"

She's a funny, funny kid.

I didn't get as much writing at the park as I'd hoped, but I did get some writing done...and that's something. The kids played together for a while, I joined in at times, and we also went for a lovely walk (or, in Zoë's case, a lovely hobble). I also learned that Phoebe can recognize bathroom signs. 

You can see the bathhouse behind Zoë in this picture. Phoebe has never been in this particular bathhouse (so it's possible she recognized the idea of a bathroom structure over all), but she had...a bit of an accident...which I caught when I noticed her knocking on the bathroom door (instead of, you know, coming to find me at the picnic table where I was set up to work). 

"I need to go in this men's room," she said...at the door of the men's room, "because I am pooping in my pants."

"You're pooping in your pants right now?" I asked. 

"Sure do!" she said. 

And she was. But we caught it in time and went into the ladies' room to get her sorted out.

Later when we were on our walk, Phoebe wanted to jump in some puddles leftover from yesterday's rain storm. I reminded her that puddles are best in rain boots. Benjamin warned her to stay out because her shoes would get dirty. 

"I want to!" she told us simply. 

So she did some jumping, which was fantastic amounts of fun.

And then she slogged out of the puddle and grumped, "My shoes—dirty!"

Like, yeah, babe! But it's really not a huge deal. And she decided that since she was a little bit wet, she may as well hit every puddle along the way. I genuinely was not expecting this many puddles because there were none by the park, but I guess our trail is a little uneven in places, which makes many lovely little concave spots for puddles to collect.

Some of those puddles are bigger than others...

Here are these little two marching along the boardwalk after Phoebe said, "Hold my hand, Alexei!"

And here she is being independent (having stuffed her new-found pockets with rocks):

The kids enjoyed picking flowers—mostly henbit and dandelions, with a few tiny bluets. I reminded the kids to save some blossoms for the bees. 

Here's Phoebe stuffing rocks into my pockets, having decided that the pockets in her dress are too difficult to find. "One minute," she kept telling me. "Put anuzzy rock in yous pocket!"

And here's Zoë showing off the little acorn caps she found to hold her tiny bluet: 

I love these first hints of spring, when the world is warming up, but before the mosquitoes and wasps and things have gotten the message. It's funny for me to be talking about spring, sometimes, when I remember that my brother is taking his little girl splashing in puddles as well—though her puddles are icy ones! True, puddles mean they're experiencing some spring thaw up in Alberta...but they won't see flowers for quite a while yet!

We, on the other hand, are lucky to already have pops of colour here and there. We're lucky to have any at all in our yard! The kids love picking wildflowers (clearly) and Phoebe just isn't sure what flowers are wild and which ones are not. She has been picking every single daffodil bud just before it's ready to blossom. It's been a little aggravating for me, but I found one the other day that she missed! 

Here she is giving it a big sniff (while I coached her on how to admire flowers with senses other than her fingers (or tastebuds since daffodils are toxic and Phoebe loves to eat everything in the garden; we have to watch her like a hawk out there)):

Happy early spring!