Saturday in the Park. And Sunday. And Monday...
I remember hearing a news report about a cold snap this past winter, or possibly a wet stretch. This report came from a place like San Francisco, where the weather is almost always perfect, which must be of great consolation to its residents when they’re trapped in a multi-hour traffic jam with 1,421,026 other motorists, most of whom probably live there because of the weather. The part of the report I specifically remember is an interview with a local daycare worker, who complained that the kids were going stir-crazy because they hadn’t been able to play outside in almost a week because of the weather. Poor things.
Here in Iowa, where the weather might not be perfect but at least the traffic generally moves at a decent pace, Abbie has been unable to play outside for most of the past four months because of the weather. We’ve snuck outside occasionally, but the air was still too cold, or the grass still hid pools of standing water from snow melt and spring showers. We always came back inside after a few minutes with numb fingers, windswept hair, and wet stains on the knees.
We’re finally enjoying consecutive days of warm temperatures here though, and I’ve celebrated by taking the kids to the playground for the past several days. I’d forgotten how wonderful the outdoors can be for entertaining children. While shut inside, I have a constant struggle to keep the boys awake and pleasant, and to find ways to keep Abbie entertained that don’t involve forbidden objects, like remote controls or the entire bag of Goldfish that I could have swore was beyond her grasp but obviously wasn’t because she’s now fighting off the dog for the right to pick the hundreds of spilled crackers off the floor and into her mouth. All I have to do is take everyone to the playground, park the boys in the stroller, and let Abbie entertain herself for long stretches without me having to pull one forbidden object from her hands, unless there’s dog poop in the park, which there usually is.
It’s fascinating to see how Abbie has changed over the winter. Last fall I was helping Abbie down the slide, pushing her in the swing, and guessing what she wanted every time she screamed. I still do all of that this spring, but at least now she can give me a sign to help me guess what she wants. Plus she’s found new ways to play outside. I can throw a ball for her, and she’ll spend the next several minutes chasing it, kicking it, and throwing it before losing interest in it in the farthest corner of the park, forcing me to retrieve it while she runs for the playground equipment. She likes climbing the ladder up to the slide instead of the nice gently sloping steps. It frightened me to see her climbing a ladder for the first few times, but I realized that if she can fall a few feet from the crib to the carpet without sustaining major injury, she can more or less safely fall a few feet from the ladder to woodchips.
She loves the merry-go-round most of all this spring, a point she likes to reinforce by screaming every time I stop pushing her. She spent 20 minutes straight on the merry-go-round the past couple of days, with me pushing her the whole time. This was easy to do at first as long as I didn’t make the mistake of running alongside it while spinning until the vertigo dropped me into the potentially wet woodchips below. Eventually though, every toddler in a two-block radius realized a dad was trapped into spinning it, and hopped on to take full advantage. I wear out quickly trying to spin a couple hundred pounds of toddler and need to take frequent breaks, but Abbie’s love and occasional screeching compels me to promptly resume pushing.
The twins sit in their stroller during all of this. They entertain themselves by watching, squirming, and spitting up. They’ve sat quietly for an hour or more without me doing any more than looking at them. They’ll probably be crankier when the weather heats up, but for now we’re just going to keep enjoying the great outdoors. We only have a couple months of decent weather you know.
Here in Iowa, where the weather might not be perfect but at least the traffic generally moves at a decent pace, Abbie has been unable to play outside for most of the past four months because of the weather. We’ve snuck outside occasionally, but the air was still too cold, or the grass still hid pools of standing water from snow melt and spring showers. We always came back inside after a few minutes with numb fingers, windswept hair, and wet stains on the knees.
We’re finally enjoying consecutive days of warm temperatures here though, and I’ve celebrated by taking the kids to the playground for the past several days. I’d forgotten how wonderful the outdoors can be for entertaining children. While shut inside, I have a constant struggle to keep the boys awake and pleasant, and to find ways to keep Abbie entertained that don’t involve forbidden objects, like remote controls or the entire bag of Goldfish that I could have swore was beyond her grasp but obviously wasn’t because she’s now fighting off the dog for the right to pick the hundreds of spilled crackers off the floor and into her mouth. All I have to do is take everyone to the playground, park the boys in the stroller, and let Abbie entertain herself for long stretches without me having to pull one forbidden object from her hands, unless there’s dog poop in the park, which there usually is.
It’s fascinating to see how Abbie has changed over the winter. Last fall I was helping Abbie down the slide, pushing her in the swing, and guessing what she wanted every time she screamed. I still do all of that this spring, but at least now she can give me a sign to help me guess what she wants. Plus she’s found new ways to play outside. I can throw a ball for her, and she’ll spend the next several minutes chasing it, kicking it, and throwing it before losing interest in it in the farthest corner of the park, forcing me to retrieve it while she runs for the playground equipment. She likes climbing the ladder up to the slide instead of the nice gently sloping steps. It frightened me to see her climbing a ladder for the first few times, but I realized that if she can fall a few feet from the crib to the carpet without sustaining major injury, she can more or less safely fall a few feet from the ladder to woodchips.
She loves the merry-go-round most of all this spring, a point she likes to reinforce by screaming every time I stop pushing her. She spent 20 minutes straight on the merry-go-round the past couple of days, with me pushing her the whole time. This was easy to do at first as long as I didn’t make the mistake of running alongside it while spinning until the vertigo dropped me into the potentially wet woodchips below. Eventually though, every toddler in a two-block radius realized a dad was trapped into spinning it, and hopped on to take full advantage. I wear out quickly trying to spin a couple hundred pounds of toddler and need to take frequent breaks, but Abbie’s love and occasional screeching compels me to promptly resume pushing.
The twins sit in their stroller during all of this. They entertain themselves by watching, squirming, and spitting up. They’ve sat quietly for an hour or more without me doing any more than looking at them. They’ll probably be crankier when the weather heats up, but for now we’re just going to keep enjoying the great outdoors. We only have a couple months of decent weather you know.
posted by Matt at
11:03 PM
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