Spaghetti, Shirts, and Slides

Skyler’s gaining so much independence these days. During meals, she will no longer allow anyone to feed her non-finger foods anymore. So I’ve pulled out all my patience and mess-tolerance and handed her a fork and spoon with her meals, like yogurt and spaghetti. I wish she didn’t love spaghetti so much! It’s a guaranteed immediate post-meal bath these days.

She’s also really into getting herself dressed. She’ll grab a handful of clothes from her drawer and bring them to the room we’re in, and spend minute after minute concentrating on dressing herself. Sometimes she gets so frustrated when she gets stuck, it turns into a group therapy session of us trying to calm her down.

Yesterday, she and I headed to my favorite park, Antioch Park, a place I myself frequented as a child. She loves swings & slides, and points them out her passenger window anytime we drive by a playground. The morning was gorgeous and sunny, but not too hot, so half the town was there playing too. I thought with Skyler’s recent independence and love for playgrounds would have me chasing after her around the park, but at first she was very shy and wanted to observe all the activity while holding my hand. It was so nice to feel needed again!

When she wasn’t showing much interest in going down the slide, I climbed up there with her and we went down together. She squealed with delight everytime we went down the slide, but I still couldn’t get her to go by herself. We switched gears and headed for the swings. This, she could do all day if I let her.

Surprisingly, she told me “All done. Slide!” so we left the swingset and headed for a different play gym that was a lot quieter with only a couple other kiddos to share it with. She headed for the slide without any coaxing from me.

But, at the top of the slide, she thought very carefully if she could go down by herself. I finally held her hand down the slide several times until she was brave enough to do it all by herself. I think it only took a half dozen tries. She even took Pink Bear up and pushed him down the slide a few times, and she thought that was the most hilarious thing in the world.

For grins, be sure to check out a post from last September when I took Skyler to the same park. It’s amazing how much she’s changed! And I gotta admit, it’s a lot more fun to go to the park with her nowadays when she can participate.

I’m seriously thinking about getting her a swingset for her birthday this September. With her love for outdoors, slides, and swings, I think that would be a welcome and well-used addition to our backyard.