Just a Morning at the Park

This morning, Graham and Connor came over with their mom, and their bikes, and Sara and Julie took all the kids to the park. Graham and Joe both now are riding bikes with training wheels. This was Joe's second time biking to the park on his, and he handled the curb cut outs are street crossings, and the hills, with much more confidence. The other thing that Joe approached with more confidence was the piece of equipment at the park that looks like oversized clock innards. He's tried climbing it before with help and has always turned back. Today though, he quietly tackled it by himself, the way he often will approach a challenge he's decided he's ready to meet. Julie was watching him out of the corner of his eye. She and Joe were both pretty proud when he reached the very top.

Now Birdie is nothing if not confident, perhaps overly so at times. In her mind, she must be at least four feet tall, because she thought nothing of lowering herself from a platform about five feet off the ground. Her feet were never going to touch the ground before she could let go of the platform with her hands, as Clara found out when she did let go and landed with a thud. This hard landing didn't stop her from making like she was going to try the same maneuver from an even greater height and squealing with delight as Julie rushed repeatedly to block her way. Eventually, she found her way to the tall open-top slide. Joe showed her what to do, and then off she delightedly went.