Wee!

Okay, so we've already established that Harper loves being outside. Spring has been very good to us in Ohio and we are loving balmy days and blooming flowers. The joy of simply being outside is eclipsed only by the joy of a great park. We are really lucky to have many terrific playgrounds in the area and, trust me, before summer is through we'll have hit them all. Harper likes climbing, crawling, sliding, hiding, and -oh yes- digging in the mulch. We were fortunate to have my mom visit us for a few days before we traveled up north for Easter. It's always a bonus to have two adults to go to the park with Harper because:
a) you have a person stationed both at the top and bottom of the slides
b) I can freely take pictures while the other adult keeps Harper from falling from high playground places.

Running across the bridge between my mom and I provided a solid fifteen minutes of delight.



The fun of peeking through the tunnel slide is only surpassed by going down the tunnel slide! This is the short one. We did send Harper down the big one once, but it was a little fast. Maybe we'll hit that one again in the fall.

The short slides at a couple local playgrounds are designed perfectly. Harper can actually get to the top by herself, and scoot herself right down them. They slow her enough that I don't have to be waiting at the bottom, which is good to know for the inevitable days when we'll be all alone at the park!

This one is actually of picture of my mom sliding down the fire pole at the park. I think I found that even more entertaining than Harper did.

On this particular day in the park we discovered that wood chips are on the top ten list of Harper's favorite things. First, she carefully made a mountain of them on this picnic table bench. Then, she sat down in them and pushed them aside until she came to the damp earth underneath. Finally, she scratched at the dirt with her hands until there was so much dirt under her fingernails it would take a week's worth of baths to get it out. Throughout the process she made sure to take part in playground cuisine, sampling both the wood chips and the dirt.

These last two pictures were taken at the playground near my parents' home in Wisconsin. Their new place is literally across the street from a library with a beautiful children's area. Behind the library is a terrific playground, complete with a huge sandbox and a bridge over a little creek. It's perfect. We have both playgrounds and libraries very near our home in Ohio, but not across the street. It's heavenly.

Harper is not quite as big a fan of the swings as she is of the slide and general climbing aspects of a good playground. She enjoys it as long as we don't move the swing too quickly. I think the dangling feet element freaks her out a little.

If you look closely, you can see the place above her left eye where she fell and nailed her forehead on the hard plastic playground edging. Oops. That happened about .2 seconds after we got her out of the stroller. There was much screaming, snot, and tears, but she recovered nicely in the end.

I am sure these won't be the last pictures from parks this season. Matt and I were amazed, the first time we took her, at how she loved the slides. She has very little fear, this one. Maybe by the time winter rolls around this year I'll be happy to curl up in the house and not have anywhere to go.

But, for now, what's cuter than a kid at a park? Except, perhaps, the fact that Harper now says "wee!" whenever she sees a playground.