Play

The park we usually go to has no shade, so as the weather gets warmer (BTW, when is it going to get hot? it's only been in the low 80s) I'm trying to find parks with more shade that we can visit. Today we tried out a new-for-us park. The kids liked it, but it made me a little nervous for Natalie and Konrad...especially because Konrad is trying to climb things he's not quite ready to climb...this picture does not show the ladder that really made me nervous for Konrad, because I was spotting him--not taking pictures!--when he climbed that ladder.

I'm especially proud of how Natalie can walk across one of these bouncy bridges--without falling! She learned from playing on the playground at preschool every day. I was amazed the first time I saw her do it...this balance skill surprised me since I hadn't seen the progression of her playground skills because it was taking place at school.

And Lukas finally overcame his fears and went down the pole by himself (without me holding him as he made the transition from the platform to the pole). There was a lot of crying before he finally did it (he has a lot of talent in many areas, but doesn't have the confidence to match), but he really wanted to do it, so he finally did it. Tom and I have found that if we give Lukas a deadline ("we're leaving in 2 minutes") he will muster the courage and do something he's afraid to do at the last second.