Parked

The weather here has been so lovely (yesterday's wind/thunderstorms/torando warnings not withstanding) and the girls and I have been taking advantage of this beautiful fall by visiting the park on a regular basis.

This is the first year that Olivia has been able to actually enjoy the equipment offered by most parks with any independence.

Her first year, obviously was spent in the stroller as I followed an agile four year old Alyssa from slide to slide to swing back to the climbing wall.

That first year, I imagined how different the next summer would be. Olivia had finally stopped crying that summer, after spending her first six months either screaming or sleeping. I imagined the next summer would be even better. She's be walking and I'd have to follow her around while still keeping an eye on her sister.

Olivia's second summer wasn't quite what I'd expected. We still went to the park but I wasn't following my 18 month old around as she toddled after her sister. In fact, she'd just started crawling that spring at 17 months.

So she was still stuck in the stroller as we followed Alyssa around the park. Olivia did like the baby swings, so she enjoyed the outings almost as much as A did. It was that summer that I didn't look ahead and imagine what the next summer might bring. Sure, I still had my rose-colored glasses but I was realistic enough to know that Olivia was on her own schedule and when she walked (and I never once considered the fact that she might now) would happen when she was ready.

And her timetable did have her walking by the next summer. She was 29 months when she started taking six steps between me and my mom. She did that for a couple of days then decided to get brave and would go from me to the couch, or my mom to the coffee table. She was up to about 20 steps in a week.

But visits to the park that summer were still less than a gleeful sprint from slide to swing and back again for Olivia.

She still needed a lot of help when she wasn't on solid ground. And forget stairs, slides, climbing.

So I continued to shadow her, letting her do what she felt comfortable doing and helping her with the rest.

This past summer we didn't make it to the parks nearly as often as years past. I don't know if it was the process of buying a new house/moving that kept us from the parks or if it was just my less-than-stellar parenting but we're attempting to make up for it in the last seconds of nice weather this fall.

And...what do you know...Olivia has developed this sense of indepedence. She wants to climb the stairs to the slides (with alternate feet, yay!!) all by herself. Sure, she still wants me on the ground next to where she's playing but she goes down the slides by herself too.

I love this. I love that she's enjoying the physical freedom her sister has taken for granted since she was 10 months old.

I'm going to miss the parks this winter and count down the days until spring.