A Trip To the Park

Leap Day this year was an absolutely beautiful day.  As Makenna and I had lunch, it dawned on me that it just might be the perfect day for Makenna's first trip to the park down the street.  We live less than a block from a great playground, and I decided that it was time to introduce her to the swings and slides and just general awesomeness.


So after lunch, I got Makenna all strapped into her tricycle, and it was time to go.

We put-putted our way down the block, crossed the street and made our way up to Indian Springs Park.  After we parked the trike at the nearest bench, I took Makenna straight to the swings.  I *LOVE* swinging.  It was one of my favorite things to do as a kid.  I used to swing on my swingset in the backyard, going as high as I possibly could and singing "The Theme From the Greatest American Hero" at the top of my lungs.  (True story.).  I knew Toots was going to be a fan of swinging, too.  After all, she is pretty much a daredevil and seems to have no fear.

But oh...how Mommy was wrong about this one.  I got her into the swing with no problem.  As long as she wasn't moving, she was basically fine, but once I started pushing - game over.  She would lean forward, look down and immediately start whining and reaching for me.   I couldn't seem to get it through to her that leaning forward and looking down MAYBE wasn't the best idea!  


So instead of letting her swing alone, I sat in a "big kids" swing with her in my lap, and she did MUCH better.  We did that for a few minutes, and then, it was time to slide!  I stood to the side and held her as she went down the smallest slide, and I could tell she wasn't REALLY sure if she liked that, either.  We slid down one more time, and then I let her sit for a few minutes and just check everything out.  

It didn't take her long to realize that the slide did funny things to our hair.  She FINALLY started to get comfortable and loosen up a bit after that.  I even got a few smiles along the way!




I let her toddle around for a while, just wandering wherever her little heart desired.  

Turns out that, in most cases, her heart desired being as close as possible to another little girl who was playing at the park at the time.  Such a little social butterfly!  


After a quick break for some water,
we tried the swing again.  No dice.  One more try just before we left confirmed that she is not into the swings, at least for now.  We'll keep trying, and hopefully she will grow to love them as much as Mommy did!


Overall, it was a pretty perfect afternoon, I have to say.  There is nothing quite like playing at the park with your sweet little daughter and seeing everything through her eyes for the first time.  Thank goodness it's almost spring, because I see many more walks to the park in the future!