Friday in the Park With Alex

I was helping Chuck with babysitting Alex the other day and, since the weather was unseasonably warm, we ventured over to the park on the next block. Alex had a great deal of fun walking the paths, changing direction each time something caught his attention. "Hey, I wonder where that boy on the bicycle is going." "Why is that dog barking?" "That lady is in a hurry; let's go see why." "What's the squirrel doing?" (All the preceding is my own rough translation of Alex-speak; he knows what he's saying even if the rest of us can't understand it.) We zig-zagged back and forth and I was reminded of the installments of The Family Circus which show Billy's incredibly circuitous path from point A to point B.

He enjoyed a ride in the swing, but it was climbing up the steps of the playground structure and going down the slide that was far more exciting. The slide (the straight red part towards the left end of the structure above) is perhaps eight feet long. When he was seated at the top, Alex was all smiles and ready to go. While sliding, he had a momentary look on his face of "What have I gotten myself into?!" And then he was back to all smiles at the bottom... and ready to do it again!

He was not interested in trying the circular slide (at the right end of the structure) except to watch a boy of about five trying to climb up the slide, getting about halfway, and then sliding back down. And then we were on our way again, around and underneath the structure, stopping every now and then to pick up a leaf or a twig that looked particularly interesting.

Once we had checked out everything that needed checking out and decided there were no more people or animals that needed to be followed, we headed home, where Alex (and Grandpa) took a nice nap. Because it's tough work having an adventure in the park!