Playground Weary

Note: I started this post (only with the title) on Monday the 19th, wrote the first two paragraphs and uploaded photos on Thursday (22nd), but only got to finish it today.

I've been trying to write three blog posts in the past week or so, this, one about the World Cup, another about sleep (or its lack). For some reason, instead of just blogging away whatever's on my mind as is generally the norm in blogging, for some reason I have been driven to include many pictures and write a coherent and well shaped texts, all of which take time and make posting more difficult to do. So, I'm trying to write this one as I go, though I wasn't able to let go on the pictures :)

I'm really, really tired of playgrounds right now. Of course this statement should have been issued last weekend, when I last went to one with the boys, but like I said, I haven't been able to post earlier. OK, why would I be tired of playgrounds? Well, first off, since my parents got here back in February, I haven't taken the boys to the playground several times a week as I used to, my parents do that; second, I spent a LOT of time in playgrounds last week, for several reasons.

Before we went to Massachusetts, my brother drove us to New York city where I dropped him off at his hotel at 2 p.m. I had to wait for my husband, who was at CUNY at a meeting until 5 p.m. What to do? I randomly parked by the central park (I was at the upper west side, around the 97th street), put my youngest in the stroller and started walking. Soon we saw a playground, where the boys played for over an hour:












I had to go back to the car because they needed diapers and when we left the car I decided to walk on the opposite direction where I found ANOTHER playground even closer than the first one. This one was a great playground (Rudin), with three climbing, slides, and bridge structures, one for really small toddlers, two fenced swing areas (with baby swings and tire swings) and a beautiful sprinkler in front of a nice shaded canopy. It was heaven for them and they played for almost 2 hours there, until daddy called us saying he was ready to be picked up.












The good thing was, they had been in the car from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and then had to remain in the car until we got to Massachusetts, so these hours playing and running around were just perfect!

Then, during the week my parents were away (they went to Tennessee to visit my dad's sister's family and meet their 1 year old grand-daughter), I took the boys to the Smith memorial playground and playhouse (thanks to Marta's blog post!) on Thursday (6/15). We were there for almost 4 hours, almost 1 full hour at the giant wooden slide (which I also enjoyed! :) and the rest of the time at the playhouse. I'm SO glad I didn't take the camera with me, or else I'd never finish writing this post, since I'd want to illustrate it all with pictures...

The last one was on Saturday afternoon, when after spending over an hour at the opening day of the Morris Arboretum's Garden Railway, we went to another playground in Whitemarsh. We've been enjoying the Garden Railway for three years now, and since last year we've had a family membership, which allows the boys to see they beloved trains many times each summer. The railway deserves its own post since I have tons of pictures of it and the boys there, but - lucky you! - I will refrain from posting any today because (1) the site above has several beautiful ones and (2) I do want to finish this post today :) The brand new Cinderella Castle is really beautiful (I do plan to post my own pictures sometime, it is worth seeing in close up).

Anyway... this last playground visit wasn't as fun because Kelvin (who's almost fully potty trained - subject for another post) had an accident and his overalls were wet and dirty from the slides, but in the end I let him play for a while anyway. Meanwhile, Linton learned on his own to dangle from the slide's railing. It was the cutest thing. He held onto them, then let go of his feet, then he stopped, looked at me and exclaimed: "How neat!" ("Que legal!"). I naturally had to take tons of pics.












I just can't take playgrounds anymore and I'm glad that I won't have to go to one in a while, as I work "full time" one last month before my parents leave.

All right, only two more things. Last Sunday we drove 5 hours (2 1/2 each way) to watch Brazil's world cup game at my brother- and sister-in-law's house in Maryland (she's about to have a baby any minute now...). It was fun, though we were extremely tired and sleepy during the drive back. Then on Wednesday we went to the beach (Island Beach State Park) in New Jersey. The water was way too cold (much better in September, remember last year?), but it was fun. I guess we just keep ourselves really busy over here, don't we?