The Park Post

When I was a kid my sister and I used to go to this great park from time to time. It had the highest twisty slide we had ever seen. It also had a petting zoo called old MacDonald's Farm (or something like that) It had a merry-go-round and it had a train for kids to ride on. This was the park to end all parks. This park was the benchmark. I went back to that park with Kiernan when he was a tiny tadpole...far to small to play.

There was mo petting zoo, the big twisty slide was gone. Most of the equipment was chipped and ramshackle  I was so disappointed.

We went back when Kiernan was a little older and it was Blazing Hot! There was the train however and he was/is all about trains. There was a merry-go-round and there was a new sandpit and a new tot lot. There was a lot of dirt and the beginnings of a really cool looking playground in the works. Last Friday we went again. Things are really coming along nicely. Behold the new Wheaton Regional Park !

You will need to enlarge this picture y clicking on it, otherwise you will not quite be able to tell that the red speck is Kiernan running full bore for the fun ahead. Megan and I made our more stately way after him. She is barely not running now. 

She did her darnedest to catch up thought and gamely climbed every mountain to get to her big brother (who she now calls Tiernan)

When we were approaching the hill I saw that Kiernan and another boy about his age (half shown in the photo above) were both on top and stiff arming each other. I had an oh-dear moment hoping they wouldn't king-of-the-mountain each other off the hill. As it turns out they became fast friends and would spend the next 40 minutes or so playing with each other.

 *The previous blog entry's bathroom break goes here.

Megan and I wandered around while Kiernan and his new friend raced and drifted apart.

Check out this crazy climbing thing!

Here are the 4 boys who played really amazingly cooperatively together. I was so proud of how social and happy and bold Kiernan was throughout this playtime. He was the leader to go on the biggest slide! He had such a good time. He would stand at the bottom and yell that the tunnel was clear so that the next boy could go down. hahah health and safety there. Later he and boy X (new found friend whose name might have been Christian?) found an excavator that was too big for them in the sand pit. They worked out a great system of one of them riding it and yelling directions to the other who was picking up the scoop. They voluntarily switched off every few minutes. It was great!

An interesting feature of these slides is that the tops rest on a wall that is otherwise fenced. This meant that i could not jump down and catch Megan after putting her on the slide. Watching Kiernan and the boys slide was making her crazy! She really really wanted a go. So I asked Kiernan if he would catch her. I was a little nervous about this as she was wearing hard soled shoes and could so easily kick him in the face coming out of  those tubes plus Kiernan had never caught her before and these were pretty big slides.

He was perfect. He caught her and lifted her to the ground and they were both laughing delightedly. We ended up doing that 3 or 4 times. What a good big brother. What a crazy and brave little sister. She flew down that slide!

One thing that did bother her though were the statue animals. It took her 4 or 5 minutes to get near one. At first (as in the camel picture) she would skirt them head leaning away and distrustfully stare them down. Eventually she got close enough to believe us that the statues were harmless and then she just kept talking to me about them, naming them and pointing over and over again. I wish I could know what she thought was going on there.

Church went pretty well. 

At craft time the kids were coloring and after hearing another boy say that the white spaces on his sheet were actually snow, Kiernan stated that his were snow as well. The girl siting (D) next to him rather scornfully  asked if he was a copy cat. 

Cue uncomfortably disgruntled mommy. I really want him to work out social things on his own and not rely on parents for dealing with other kids. So I said nothing even after he looked at me questioningly. That was frustrating and hard.

He asked what a copycat was.

This took D aback. She answered in a much less belligerent tone that it was someone who has to copy other people all the time.

He thought about that for a while and answered (very sweetly from my perspective) "Sometimes."

I melted a bit there. I think he nicely diffused the situation because she then generously filled in for him: "but not all the time.

He agreed.

This shows me how hard not helicoptering is going to be for me but makes me proud of how he handled himself. He was completely aware that something emotionally charged was going on but not really what it was or how to handle it. This describes most of life anyway. He asked me the next day about copycats so it was on his mind for a bit. We talked about it some.