It appears we are starting our playground season. Our Saturday was simply lovely and we enjoyed some play at the neighborhood playground. I think my favorite part of the day was just watching the girls as they worked out solutions and explored.

While Emily is our cautious one, she was off on her own exploring and enjoying the equipment on her own. She enjoyed having us nearby, but was happy playing on her own or finding other kids to play with. Julia hung with her Mommy, but also escaped when she could. I was able to appreciate how much Emily has gained in ability and interest as she played on the equipment. She didn’t have to be coaxed down the big slides, she didn’t need warning at high points, she didn’t need suggestions on what to do next, and she knew how to play and interact with all the equipment.

Julia enjoyed swinging, but freedom the most. I let her walk and choose her own direction. I had to have Emily physically restrain her at the top of the slides or she would have gone without me to catch her at the bottom. After she had been down a slide once I was able to just wait for her by the slide. Julia loves to slide. There just were a lot of slides to choose from. She will go down on her bottom if I help her and if she could get away with it she will take the slide on her tummy. She mastered the stairs up onto the equipment and moving along the bridges and paths. On one arched walkway she figured out that she could crawl across it because the incline and decline was a little uneasy for her.

Julia’s confidence is so much stronger then Emily’s. But then this comparison is not fair. Julia has watched Emily do everything and figures that if Emily can do it that she can too. This makes me want to sing the line from a song, “Anything you can do, I can do better.” I wonder if I won’t be singing this song for a long time.

We let the girls experience the billiard table from a different angle. They enjoyed rolling the balls into the holes and checking out the cool colors and stripes found on the balls.

I picked up a few new storage boxes for toys and got them out to fill them. Instead the girls filled them with fun play. I think these boxes were worth an hour of play alone. It was cute to watch the girls play together in their own boxes.

No day is ever perfect, but we have been stringing a few good ones together this week. It is nice to see that the little ones can express their individual spirit and still follow rules and advance in their play and skills. This is just a highlight list of some positives from this week:

• Julia had quit eating veggies and meat about a month ago and started eating baby food again- one dinner this week she was disinterested in her baby food and kept pointing excitedly at Mommy’s plate. I gave her a green bean from my plate and she ate it and asked for more. She finished off all of my green beans and some of Emily’s. This hasn’t been repeated again, but reminded me that we will not eat baby food forever.
• Emily has been willing to go to the potty, but never took the initiave. Today when I picked her up at mother’s day out, she went potty and wouldn’t let me in the bathroom stall – she did it all by herself. Later in the day she took herself to the potty at home without a reminder from Mommy. This is a big deal for our house!
• Intereactive play with the girls has been so sweet. This evening the girls were cooking with their kitchen stuff and Emily was taking them to the store to buy more food. The two girls ran up and down the hall with the stroller doing the shopping together. Sometimes Emily follows Julia and other times Julia follows Emily around playing together.
• Emily has been struggling to go to bed and fall asleep without the aid of her pacifier. She has been getting up a lot, sleeping on the floor, sleeping on the couch in the middle of the night, and skipping naps. We have tried several different routine changes to see if we could find something to help her without much success. This is just one of the hard things in life you have to figure out on your own. Today she laid down for her nap and then again tonight for bed and went on to sleep without games and struggle. I think it helped that she has been pretty tired, but I will take what we can get.

Our winter has been pretty cold this year and our lives have been a little busier than usual so the opportunity to get out and play has been hampered. We have made several trips to local restaurant playgrounds to take advantage of the double benefit of food and play. In general, Emily is shy and slow to try new things that require effort and risk. Once inside a playground area Emily wants to play with all the kids and boss them around. She still is slow to try new things and doesn’t always play in the equipment, but she enjoys being loud and interacting with others. Julia is also shy, but pretty daring when given an idea of the possibilities.

Today, we stopped at a playground and got some energy out. Emily loved playing with two older girls (ages 6 and 8). They were only able to coax her once to the high portions of the playground, but she was very good at getting them to play on a lower slide with her. The girls were really taken with Julia. We got Julia to crawl up the three platforms to the lower slide. Once she had experienced it once I couldn’t keep her off of the equipment. It was really funny to watch this toddler crawl up the platforms and peer into the slide tunnel with such joy. I would grab her at the top (good thing I’m tall and could stretch the whole tunnel) to help her sit down to slide. She didn’t care what direction she came down the slide as long as she was coming. If I can guess what the future holds I’m willing to guess that Julia is going to be coaxing Emily into doing risky things in just a little while.

There are no photos for this one, but it is a good story.

Emily has been pacifier-less since her birthday almost a month ago. She has really struggled with going to sleep and we have tried a lot of things, but haven’t found the right combination of things to help her. Tonight was no different. She was up a few times, but mostly I could hear her moving around in her room. We let her work it out on her own and finally it was quiet. Just before I went to bed I heard a few noises at the door. I thought Emily must have woken up and was looking for us just to put her back down. I like these because I can cuddle and rock her for a few minutes, only when I tried to open the door carefully it was stuck. It was stuck on a sleeping Emily! She had gone to sleep laying just behind the door. I admit I walked away and chuckled about this for a few minutes. I returned and worked for a few more minutes moving her legs just far enough that I could squeeze into the room. Sure enough she had moved her pillow, blanket, and stuffed animal to the floor just inside the door and finally found sleep. I took pitty on my sleeping beauty and moved her back to bed to sleep. Sweet dreams, little girl!