I had a long streak of days where I wasn’t writing. I totally neglected my posts and I feel horrible. I had so much of a build up that it wasn’t a problem at least. Which I suppose is why I actually did that in the first place. Getting back into writing blog posts has been a bit of a shock for my brain though.
My step daughter is with us for half of the week, but recently her mother changed jobs and our entire schedule was thrown off kilter. Her maternal grandmother was picking her up from school on her mother’s days, but there were some conflicting events that made it impossible this week. (Early Oct)
Instead of driving the 30-40 minutes from her school to our house then back to her mother’s house, we decided to kill time at the park. Unluckily for us, the second day contained rain. So we ended up sitting in the car and eating Little Caesar’s pizza. Then we wandered to the library to get some photography books. Those were only briefly looked at before boredom struck.
It was HOT in the library so we couldn’t stay there. Masks are mandated again, which made matters worse. There were no hang out spaces available. So we tried sitting outside, but that opened up the door for temptation. My step daughter loves the canal next to the library. And then she started wandering far from my sight which adds another level of complication. Busy streets and too many strangers.
So we snuck over to the park again. The rain had just stopped and the playground has astro turf so that meant no worries of mud. We had the ENTIRE playground to ourselves for the two hours we hung out there. We had snacks and ran around like loons. My step daughter even slipped up a few times and called me “Mom” so my ovaries were exploding.
The modern playgrounds really are interesting. They have a lot of “safe” things to play on. I was really interested in the 3 story section and did sneak up to the 2nd level. I was not brave enough for the tippy top since it did involve climbing a ladder. I wasn’t comfortable coming down the ladder and I knew I was probably too heavy for the slide.
My step daughter took the photo of the slide up top. She started doing 4H this year and she’s been interested in taking pictures for it. I think we’re getting her a camera eventually. We’ll see how her Fall Break trip goes. My SO’s parents (her fraternal grandparents) are taking her to the beach. They’re going to let her use the camera to take pictures there. If she’s still interested in doing photography, we’ll probably get her a camera to at least get started.
There were a lot of musical instruments at the park. That was an interesting way to amuse kids. I feel bad for the parents who might get stuck listening to bad playing, but my step daughter didn’t have any interest in these. Beyond when I was playing with them. I honestly don’t miss the playgrounds from my childhood except perhaps for the merry-go-rounds that we had. They were much more exciting and fun than the “safe” version they have now. They don’t spin very well and they have molded seats for kids to plop their butts into. The padding around the bottom also makes it hard to grab on to the spinner and get a good running push.
I didn’t remember to snap a photo of that part, but if we end up going to that park again, I’ll be sure to get better photos. I was really cautious with my cellphone since it was still drizzling lightly while we were out there. It was really an eye opener though. Getting to goof around the space for a few hours. I even crawled around under the smaller play set and laid down on the astro grass. It was not unpleasant. Making up stories with my step daughter was a blast.
What was your favorite thing to do when you were a kid? Did you visit playgrounds? Did you burn yourself on those metal monstrosities we called a slide? Thanks for reading as always, guys!
Atelier Whootique 