Time to Play

Nothing says 'we need to spend a couple of hours playing at the park' like a beautifully sunny day after a number of chilly stormy ones.  So that's what we did.

Quite naturally Emmuska was eagerly trying to master the some new obstacle with as little (read 'seemingly deafness'...) verbal aid from her mother which ultimately landed her in this situation:

a few times actually.  Still it didn't hold her back because she is rather (read 'much too clever for her mother to keep up with her'...) ingenious when it comes to puzzling out these sorts of situations.

Yes - it's hard to keep up with her.

Sometimes it's hard for me to believe how big this guy is getting. Since I've been so remiss at keeping this blog up to date (something I'm trying to rectify starting with this post) I'll quickly bring you up to date with what he is doing lately. Mid-March he was quite good at sitting up on his own, mid-April saw his first two teeth and the cutest little crawl (which has worked up to impressive speeds...) and my mid-May he cut two more teeth (four total) and loves to pull himself up onto just about anything and make mad dashes for the backyard door if he has the slightest inkling that it might be open. He has gotten quite good at getting back down after standing up (with the aid of someone/thing) and has recently experiment with standing unsupported. As far as I could tell it went well enough that he'll probably be trying it again soon. And then I can only imagine what I'll be dealing with. ;)

Sorry about that long tangent - point being this little guy is growing so much and quickly. Long gone are the days of me holding him while at the park - he wants to be down and playing just like the girls.

Just like the girls.

Though often he has a hard time keeping up. (Notice they all started out at the same time...by the time Samuel got up the slide they were long gone...not to worry...they are about to lap him and that's good enough for him.)

I'm going to chalk Samuel's love of all things playground up to this tunnel. (Well that and his personality that seems to love just about all things period.) One day we came to the playground and Liberty was feeling quite sick (she threw up as soon as we got there).  I couldn't just take her home as I had an appointment later in the day so we were playing when Liberty informed me that she needed something out of the car. I left Emmuska in charge of Samuel while I ran to the car with Liberty. (Don't worry it was only a little stretch of grass away from the playground - I could see and hear them the entire time I was at the car.) Despite the brevity of my absence Emmuska managed to show Samuel the tunnel and it was love at first sight. Now I can't take him without him working his way out of my arms to get down then climb up to the tunnel.

Because of the slight angle and slick surface he usually has a difficult time making headway. That's were super sister Emmuska comes in. Every inch progress he makes she scooches up right behind him so he doesn't fall back and he continues to make progress.

And Liberty doesn't mind throwing in her help too. (Okay she just likes to hang out with everybody else...she has no real clue what's going on besides the fact that everybody is hanging out in the tunnel.) At just about every little opening Samuel has to stop and look. He's a scenic route kind of guy - all about being along for the good times and enjoying every vista.

I'm okay with that because I love the view too.

And to top the fun filled day off was this wonderful revelation:

Emmuska likes taking her brother down the slide. Samuel loves having Emmuska take him down the slide. I never have to go down a slide with a child on my lap again. No more mess of legs and sneakers trying to make it to the bottom because these things were clearly not designed for an almost six foot tall woman. I can now pass that fun opportunity on to the (appropriately proportioned) older sister. I love parks.