A Playground Day

 

This afternoon I took the kids and some of my course readings to the park because sunshine is important...and probably helps your brain digest dense writing a little easier...probably. This textbook isn't actually too dense. In fact, I would rate it quite readable. Very informative, but a pleasure to read. Some of the other articles I was assigned were...a lot to chew on. 

Anyway, we went for a lovely walk around and around and around the pond. We watched a train go by. We played. 

I read. They played. 

It was a lovely afternoon. 80°F, which felt nice and cool on the heels of the sweltering summer.

Here is Phoebe living her best life in the swing, begging to be pushed higher and higher:

Let's compare it to the Phoebe of 2022, shall we?* 

She was such a funny little thing about sudden drops in elevation, but she's really learned to enjoy swinging! 

I can't say the same thing about sliding (though she was voluntarily going down all the slides without any assistance at the top or bottom...her face shows she's not quite sure about that dropping sensation):

So we'll keep working on the slides. But the swinging? She's got swinging down! And up!

Or, as she likes to sing while swinging (but without really moving her legs): "In and out! And in and out! And in and out!"

So maybe we'll keep working on swinging as well as sliding. 

I'm going to be honest—we haven't been to the park in several months. We just...don't go to parks...in the summer here. We go to the pool. That's our outing. Playgrounds just aren't much fun when it's so hot and humid (in my opinion...and in everyone else's opinion). But we do enjoy them throughout the "cold" months.

Phoebe was overjoyed to return to the park and was able to do so much independent play. She can navigate the entire play structure by herself (including the really big slides, which I didn't take a picture of). She's brave enough to follow her siblings on the bridge. And she can just...do what she wants to do. 

When she came over to ask if I would push her on the swing, I showed her how many pages I had left in the chapter I was reading and asked her to go play for ten more minutes so I could finish my reading and then I would push her in the swing, and she just said, "Okay, Mommy!" and skipped off to keep playing. It was amazing! 

We'll definitely have to do a repeat of today (assuming another park day can go so well). It's a rather nice stage to be in—the stage of going somewhere and not having to be 100% hands-on.

Here are the bigger kids working together to build a sand village of sorts:

*There's a video in that post of Andrew carrying her down the stairs at around 4–5 months old, which she didn't like either.