Playground Fun

Being that the weather has been exceptional I have made a valiant effort to try and get out and enjoy the sunshine while we still can. I remember last year being so pitiful that I think we only used Hailey's kiddie pool twice and her water table about the same, I couldn't even tell you how many times we made it to the park. Not only is the neighbourhood park here really great for every age of kid, it's super new and it actually has sand. We have been to a few this year that have woodchips or small pebbles (which aren't really ideal for a toddler that likes to play barefoot). Kids these day's don't even know how good they have it, I mean the parks that were around when I was a kid were just a notch better then a condemned house full of rotting wood, rusting metal or reused old tires that smelled like pee. The cool spinning chairs, zip lines, climbing structures, slides and the like are where it's at.

We went twice this week, H just loves going and playing with the older kids, it's hilarious watching her watch them and try and copy whatever they are doing. What isn't hilarious is that I think I'm the only parent there that is actually watching their kid. Hailey actually asked to leave on Tuesday when we went, which is crazy as I normally have to grab and go in hopes that we don't shed too many tears. The kids were totally nuts, and probably unsupervised, screaming, swearing, throwing sand, and ripping around there oblivious to anyone else. Yuck, H decided that playing in the sand would be a safer option, and for once I remembered to bring her bucket. Lots of little kids came up wanting to play, and I made it clear that we were up to share whatever we had, but all the mommies grabbed their kids away. At this point Hailey had had enough and I don't blame her. Today we went again, it was better as more kids were there with their families but it was still hard to avoid the crazies. But tonight there was a weird lone dude parked on a bench, clearly with no kids at the park giving out a very creepy "I'm totally watching your kids"vibe. WTF? do you call the cops when you see that? I don't know, but when he left I felt better. We had our bucket taken and all her digging tools left all around, and I'm totally up for sharing but respect people's things??! I'm hoping some of the very nice nannies I met earlier on in the summer will come back, but maybe they have been scared off too from the school kids taking over the joint, but for now I will continue to go back as long as Hailey wants to play. I guess she needs to learn how to deal with assholes eventually.

L