At The Playground

Since it's supposed to be 1) very hot and 2) threatening thunderstorms all week, and today dawned relatively cool, Abigail and I went off to the playground again.

I was really excited to learn that last week at gymnastics she FINALLY climbed through the tunnel they have, which she had refused to do before. She'd climbed through a tunnel on the playground with me the day before, so I'm taking partial credit. :)

I remembered my camera this time - hooray!

I enjoyed people-watching whenever Abigail was more or less stationary (swinging, or teeter-tottering, etc). The park has a 1/2 mile track running right past the playground, so lots of people were out exercising before the heat really set in. My favorite was the middle-aged lady who was singing her heart out to her Walkman, lol. We also saw a guy practicing jumprope moves. I think he saw me watching and slowed down a little so I could see. :)

We played for almost an hour and a half, and I think she could have gone on longer except she was red as a beet and I was terrified that she was getting sunburned, even though I'd SLATHERED her (and me!) in sunscreen before leaving the house. Sure enough, ten minutes in the air conditioning and she wasn't even pink.

We're so brave, going through the tunnel like a pro!

Last week she went down the slide a few times, albeit reluctantly, and she was quick to let me know when she'd had enough. This week she went down the slides a couple times, then climbed to the VERY TOP of the BIGGEST slide and said she wanted to go down. I was a little dubious, since I couldn't reach her - the slide was that big - but I caught her at the bottom and she loved it. :)

She loves all these poles that are everywhere - when you bang on them, they make a drum sort of noise, and she ran from pole to pole with a big smile on her face, making music. :)

We love the swings. :) "Up and down, back and forth, wheeee!" (Did anyone else read that book when they were growing up?)

So, funny story... Abigail has learned that if she finds a similarly-sized kid on the playground, and follows them around and watches closely, they'll show her how to do lots of cool stuff. :) Today she watched a little girl climb up these poles like a monkey, then promptly ran over and lifted herself up on the first step. I've been trying to get her to do the poles at gymnastics from day one, so I can't wait to see if this pays off.

We were riding the teeter-totter (okay, she was riding, I was standing behind her doing the bouncing) when a little girl ran up and climbed on the other seat. At first Abigail seemed a little surprised, then she started waving and bouncing harder and generally seemed excited to have found a playmate. She followed her around for the rest of the time.

I kept making her stop to drink water, which Abigail obviously thought was a complete waste of time, lol.

Abigail was contentedly exhausted for the rest of the day. :) We came home and she wanted to eat lunch, so we ate even though it was pretty early, and then she wanted to watch Pooh Bear, and she lasted through almost the entire movie all cuddled up with me on the couch, and then went down for a nap immediately and slept like a rock for three hours. :)