Yesterday was a mixed bag. You don't want to hear about insurance problems--at least not today--so I'll save my complaining about denying treatment to a 3 year old for another time. And they have told us we'll have to move our car for about a week while they pour cement near our building. Umm, we have two kids under 3, how is that going to work?!
But yesterday had a few bright spots. Things needing to get onto the calendar got onto the calendar. The weather was gorgeous. And we turned that gorgeous weather into a rather fun afternoon.
I'd intended to use our bike ride as a pleasant hour or so ride around the village to get my workout in for the day. I definitely hadn't planned on stopping, but 30 minutes into it the kids were getting feisty in trailer so I promised them we'd get out to stretch at a park. So we pulled into the playground we've been to before several times.
When we arrived, a group of about 8 older boys were being supervised by one mom. They'd been running the bases at the ball field but eventually made their way to the tot lot equipment where we were hanging out. They came thundering in like a herd of cattle and Cole was terrified in a pleasant way. It was all swirling chaos of little boys being little boys and he found it funny and was anxious at the same time. Leda let out screams of delight to match the boys and was in no way intimidated. She wanted to play, too. The boys walked up the slides and hurried up the stairs and yelled things like "pee" and "poop" into the sound pipes. Sliding down together and basically acting out scenes of young maleness.
The mom finally scooted them away back to run the bases again and another mom with a little boy closer to Cole's age appeared. This one was curious about mushrooms, things found in the sand, and was a bit of a quiet to-himself one. Which made Cole more brave. Brave enough to ask me to help him do the fire pole from a height of about 5 ft. He couldn't do it, of course. He doesn't have the arm strength, can barely reach it, and doesn't understand how to squeeze his legs together to slow down. But he leaned over, grabbed on, let me catch him and slowly lower him to the ground. It was impressive.
Leda, on the other hand, is all playing in dirt, picking up trash, and going down the slide. Her favorite words lately include "spilled," "belly" where she shows you hers, "let's go!" and "up." Which is really universal for out, on, in or any up, over, under type action. Other than "open" which she knows, too.
Cole's current favorite phrases include "that's not happy!" to report negative events. "I want to go too!" and "mine." We're in the Me Too phase. The Terrible Twos weren't actually so terrible. Really, 18 months to 2.5 is pretty bad then things have gotten very cool because of the conversations and abilities. Me Too is perhaps more annoying. And it's because we have a sibling...although I'm curious if those of you with only children see it manifest in going along with parents, etc.. But EVERYTHING seems to have a Me Too component. Two bowls of cereal. Two toys to play with. They want to go along everywhere. I'm going to take the trash out..."I want to go TOO!" Umm, ok.
"That's mine!" Well, not really. Technically you own no property, son, but even strictly speaking in terms of toys that belongs to your sister. Not everything the light touches belongs to you a la Simba.
But yesterday had a few bright spots. Things needing to get onto the calendar got onto the calendar. The weather was gorgeous. And we turned that gorgeous weather into a rather fun afternoon.
I'd intended to use our bike ride as a pleasant hour or so ride around the village to get my workout in for the day. I definitely hadn't planned on stopping, but 30 minutes into it the kids were getting feisty in trailer so I promised them we'd get out to stretch at a park. So we pulled into the playground we've been to before several times.
When we arrived, a group of about 8 older boys were being supervised by one mom. They'd been running the bases at the ball field but eventually made their way to the tot lot equipment where we were hanging out. They came thundering in like a herd of cattle and Cole was terrified in a pleasant way. It was all swirling chaos of little boys being little boys and he found it funny and was anxious at the same time. Leda let out screams of delight to match the boys and was in no way intimidated. She wanted to play, too. The boys walked up the slides and hurried up the stairs and yelled things like "pee" and "poop" into the sound pipes. Sliding down together and basically acting out scenes of young maleness.
The mom finally scooted them away back to run the bases again and another mom with a little boy closer to Cole's age appeared. This one was curious about mushrooms, things found in the sand, and was a bit of a quiet to-himself one. Which made Cole more brave. Brave enough to ask me to help him do the fire pole from a height of about 5 ft. He couldn't do it, of course. He doesn't have the arm strength, can barely reach it, and doesn't understand how to squeeze his legs together to slow down. But he leaned over, grabbed on, let me catch him and slowly lower him to the ground. It was impressive.
Leda, on the other hand, is all playing in dirt, picking up trash, and going down the slide. Her favorite words lately include "spilled," "belly" where she shows you hers, "let's go!" and "up." Which is really universal for out, on, in or any up, over, under type action. Other than "open" which she knows, too.
Cole's current favorite phrases include "that's not happy!" to report negative events. "I want to go too!" and "mine." We're in the Me Too phase. The Terrible Twos weren't actually so terrible. Really, 18 months to 2.5 is pretty bad then things have gotten very cool because of the conversations and abilities. Me Too is perhaps more annoying. And it's because we have a sibling...although I'm curious if those of you with only children see it manifest in going along with parents, etc.. But EVERYTHING seems to have a Me Too component. Two bowls of cereal. Two toys to play with. They want to go along everywhere. I'm going to take the trash out..."I want to go TOO!" Umm, ok.
"That's mine!" Well, not really. Technically you own no property, son, but even strictly speaking in terms of toys that belongs to your sister. Not everything the light touches belongs to you a la Simba.