I asked Dennis if he'd like to go to the park today, and he began chanting "slide" over and over and over again, all the way through getting his socks and shoes on, through me fixing a juice cup for the road, and continuing on until we drove up at the playground. At this point, I stopped the car and came around to unbuckle his carseat harness while he said "down!" and "slide". As soon as I pressed the button in the middle of the harness, he was ripping the seatbelt off, pulling both arms through, and boosting himself up out of the seat and into my arms. Suffice it to say that he was ready to play.
He walked through the playground sand, announcing "hey" loudly to the other children and their parents that were already there. He went over to one boy and patted him on the back and repeated his greeting. ALL of the children there were older than Dennis, but that didn't slow him down one bit. He climbed up and slid down many times, on the small playset and the large playset, with me running around to see where he'd be coming down and then following frantically to see where he'd want a boost up. He can climb the small playset with absolutely no assistance, but he needs help with the first step of the large structure (most likely because it's designed for older kids and that keeps the little ones from being able to get on...).
Today we learned how to climb a 'ladder' of horizontal metal bars. He learned to hold on to one bar and put his feet on the lower one and then move his hands and legs up in sequence to finally grab the upper floor of the play structure and haul himself up. Naturally I was standing very close and had a hand on him through all of it, but he was so proud of his accomplishment that he stood up at the top and yelled "YAAAAYYY!!" as loud as he could. While he was yelling, he looked around to see who all had noticed his achievement. Then he gave himself a round of applause before running to a slide and sliding down.
He ate a tiny bit of sand, which is a big improvement from the two handfuls he munched on Monday. And he played with a three year old who was making sand castles--Dennis scooped some handfuls of sand into the bucket to help. They bonded over that kid's Elmo shirt, both of them smiling at each other and saying their own slightly garbled versions of the red puppet's name. He pointed to the swing then, saying "wing" like he might actually want to do it, so I hefted him up into it (the baby swings are HIGH at this playground). He said "wheeee" and then laughed when I exaggeratedly screamed and ducked to avoid his feet on the return swing. He tolerated about ten swings back and forth before he was demanding to get down. A few more times up and down the small play structure seemed to sap his remaining energy, and he began trudging toward the exit and asking for juice. He hesitated at the exit, and when I scooped him up to carry him to the car, he screeched and cried like he didn't want to leave. Big tears when I buckled him back in, a little whining as I cranked the car, and then happiness when I handed him the cold juice cup. He identified every car and truck to me on the way home. It was a nice day to play outside!
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