Walking

Our  darling little girl is 17 months old now and still prefers a bottle to solid foods, gets me up at least once a night most nights, and prefers scooting around on her bum as opposed to other modes of transportation. If she doesn't want to do something it is very difficult to talk her into it. Tonight, however, we made a huge leap forward. In the last couple of weeks Liza has consented to let us take her hand and help her to walk around the house. She has also taken up furniture walking as a casual hobby. Earlier this week at play group Liza actually wanted me to hold her hands and walk around the playground, a surprising first. Also this afternoon we were at a different park and she let Jack help her walk around most of the time. Then this evening we were all in the living room and as I watched Eliza pulled herself up and lean her back against the ottoman, which is not unusual. However  after a few seconds she takes a huge leap forward all on her own. She didn't get very far before she lost her balance, but I got all excited and did the typical parental "ya!! complete with higher voice and clapping hands. Eliza got excited too. She crawled back to the ottoman,  pulled herself  back up and got in ready position. I got in front of her and held my arms out and she did several toddler steps forward. Jack had caught on by now and we all yelled ya and clapped hands. For the next half hour or so we enjoyed this new game together. Jack and I tried sitting a few feet apart from each other so we could help Liza stand up  and find her balance before we let her go to walk to the other person. She humored us for a few runs but then she crawled back to the ottoman and pulled herself up and got in ready position.  Liza still wanted to walk towards us and enjoyed all of the hugs and attention but she wanted to do it by herself, and on her own terms. I have no idea where she could have picked up that particular character trait.

Warm Weather

This afternoon as I was out and about running errands I realized what a beautiful afternoon it was. it has been so cold, gray, and gloomy and this afternoon the sun decided to come out and warm things up. On my way home I started plotting and as soon as I found Jack I announced that it was a beautiful day outside that as soon as groceries were put away we were going to the park. I decided that we should try out a new one so we drove over to Raymond Remkus Park. We got there about 3:30 so it was busy but not crowded. Apparently I wasn't the only one excited to be outside. Liza ,as always, was happy to be out and about with her peeps. We tried having her climb on the smaller play structure that is purposely designed for the little ones, but none of the other kids were there and so she wasn't interested either. So we went over to the bigger kid area. Lilza had great fun scooting with me as her shadow or walking with  Jack's assistance as she went around exploring. I believe her favorite feature was the long, orange tube slide. The slide was rather tall  so with a little hesitation I sent her down on her back and Jack caught her at the bottom. She didn't fuss but she wasn't all smiles either so the next time I went down with her and we were all giggles. Running a close second was the swing, we had fun playing tickling games as she swung back and forth. We also tried out this single seater spinny thing. Basically it was a poll with a seat at the bottom and as you twisted the top part of the poll it would spin you round and round. Liza thought it was fun. She hasn't figured out how to hold on tight yet so both Jack and I had our hands ready to catch her as Jack spun her around. They also had a good old fashioned merry-go-round, I hadn't seen one in years. My elementary school had one and it was my favorite thing to do. We didn't try that one out though. I think it will have to wait a year or two.