Mother’s day in the park. I had Sophia for mother’s day as part of the mother’s day gift to Susan, her mom. It was an interesting time at the playground to say the least.
Sophia first was running after every dog in the park trying to pet them. The she wanted to see the baby of the woman who was helping her on the seesaw. At one point Sophia was starting up a ladder to the gymboree, the woman was walking away with her child when the wind picked up a second. Sophia gets off the ladder,starts running after mother and child and says “I’ve got to help the baby with her hat.” I look over thinking the child’s hat blew off, but it’s still on her head. Literally a second after I said to Sophia that the baby is still wearing the hat, another gust of wind comes along and blows the cap off, right in Sophia’s path for her to pick up and give to the baby.
Her next haircut I start looking for the 6’s on her scalp. (Of course I’m kidding; my friend’s daughter has the 6′ s in her hair and has said so herself LOL!)
I’m usually the one who takes Sophia out to the playground. Her doctor wants her to get exercise and drop some weight. But for almost 45 minutes or so she was sitting on the swings and letting me push her. So we had this little exchange:
Me: Sophia, it’s really nice outside. And we’re not going to be here all that long. Don’t you want to go on the jungle gym? You should be running around on a day like this.
Sophia: (pause) Push me.
So that went on for another 20 minutes or so.
Before we left the park, she decided to go once on the big slide. This playground has a slide built into the side of one of the hills there (it’s the highest point in Arlington and for my money has the best view of Boston). Needless to say it’s pretty big. Sophia loves that slide and is up and down on that thing all the time we’re there. She wasn’t much that day because it was a warm day, she was wearing a skirt and the plastic on the slide was pretty warmed up by the sun. So this was the first time on the slide for her today. Of course I wasn’t worried. She went down the slide and picked up some speed. I still wasn’t worried, since she’s having done it numerous times and knew what she was doing. Wen she continued to pick up speed towards the end, I actually still wasn’t worried because she knew how to stick a landing well. It’s when she just got to the bottom and she hadn’t slowed down or prepared for the end that I said a silent, “oh-no”.
She hit the landing feet first and the rest of her went flying forward, forcing her to land on her knees and face. The only reason I can think of for her not landing correctly was taht she spent so much time on the swings that she wasn’t used to the suddeness of the slide. The crying nearly immediately started after that. She was okay except for the scratches down her nose and on her knee. Of course the wipes I had were in her backpack which was near the sandbox on the other side of the playground, and I wasn’t about to walk her until I knew she could walk and that her knee was in decent shape. After that and getting the dirt out of her mouth, I cleaned her up and took her back home. She had enough excitement for one day.