The Park

We've had a few nice days lately, so Tralee and I took advantage and headed off to a local park.

Our first trip was VERY eventful. Unfortunately, it was eventful for all the wrong reasons. I blame myself. I took Tralee there right before dinner, and she hadn't napped that day. She was hungry and tired -- a double whammy!

When we first arrived Tralee was super excited. She ran right to the swings yelling "Wing! Wing! Wing!" Her glee lasted about fifteen to twenty minutes. After that, the meltdown began.

There were several kids at the playground, and Tralee kept trying to go up the slides the wrong way. I'm not a slide Nazi, and usually let Tralee do whatever she wants on them, unless there are other kids around and she needs to share. I attempted to point out to Tralee that other kids needed to go down the slide, but there was no reasoning. She wouldn't budge, and I had to physically take her off the slide. She slammed her body on the ground (a frequent behavior lately) and started to wail. I picked Tralee up, and told her we had to go to the car until she settled down. Well, who I'm I kidding? I'm a pregnant lady carrying a 33 pound, kicking toddler to a car parked far away. We didn't make it to the car, but we did make it to a tree where I sat Tralee down and told her she couldn't get up until she calmed down.

I should have made it to the car. Two seconds later Tralee jumped up and took off through the soccer field. For two, this little girl is FAST! I chased her down (I can only imagine what on-lookers where thinking as a VERY pregnant woman was chasing a very FAST two year old), and took her back to the tree. A few minutes later she was ready to play again.

Her new-found enthusiasm didn't last long. Tralee climbed to the very top of the tallest slide, sat down, and then chickened out. Within a few seconds there was a rather long line of kids waiting to slide down. I couldn't reach Tralee as it was too high. I tried to coax her down, but she wasn't having it. A few little boys were growing impatient with Tralee and were crowding around her to get her to go down. Tralee started hitting them (something I've never seen her do before), and that's when I decided I would have to climb the ladder and get Tralee down myself.

So. . . my pregnant belly and I climbed the little blue ladder (meant for little kids) to the highest part of the play ground and rescued Tralee. Again. . . I can only guess what the other parents were thinking.

I got her safely to the ground and told her it was time to go. This news brought another bout of tears and screaming. In fact, she cried all the way to the grocery store. I would have gone right home, but we were completley out of milk. I told Tralee she had to be a good girl inside the grocery store, and if she was, I would get her some french fries for the ride home. The bribe worked! She was GREAT while I quickly grabbed some milk and got the heck out of the store.

I also kept my promise and we hit a drive through where I got Tralee a chocolate milk and a small french fry. She was an angel all the way home!

I timed our next visit to the park MUCH better. We went right after lunch and an hour or so before her nap time. She was a peach the whole time. She didn't even cry when I told her it was time to leave! I was SOOOOOO proud of her! The bonus to this day was, she was so wore out from playing at the park, that she slept for 3.5 hours at nap time, and even went to bed early! It can't get any better than that!