The Park

This has been a week of going to the park.
And why not? The weather is good and the schools have gone back so the childrens play area will not be over-run by school age children, many of whom are probably too old to be using the facilities anyway. I recently read a story about how a teenage girl had to be cut free from a toddler swing by the fire brigade. She was drunk, which probably explains it, but I did wonder if she'd be made to pay for a replacement swing for the little kids.
I'm struggling to get Joseph to like the swings. The very first go he had he seemed to like it. It was a snowy weekend back at the start of the year and Andy and I thought it would be fun to take him for a walk. We ended up at the play area and had a go on the swings and he seemed to love it.
I didn't take him again for a while, I wanted to wait for less inclement weather. When I did go, he hated the swings and cried when I pushed him.
I took him to the park on Wednesday and he hated the swings. He decided that he liked the slide though, as long as I climbed up with him and slid down with him. Eventually he slid down on his own, but I didn't like the idea of letting him run about on the top without adult supervision. It's one of this big multi-play gym things with a bridge, a climbing rope, a climbing wall and shallow steps to climb up. This means that there are a lot of places an unwary toddler could fall off, not to mention the slide itself which he liked, but needed help to use.
We had fun and we went home for lunch, before the sun got too strong it would burn. Joseph seems to be relatively sun-proof, but I go the colour of lobster thermidor very quickly if I don't wear the strongest suntan lotion you can buy. Ironically it's me slapping on the baby suncream and I hardly worry about Joseph. I do give him some cream as well, but he doesn't ever burn.
I went to the park on Friday as well. It was a nice day, I had done all my boring domestic jobs so we went. This time I spent a lot of the time stood at the top of the slide whilst Joseph climbed up the steps on his own, slid down the slide with me to help and then ran the long way round the equipment and climbed up again. I lost count of how many times he slid, but I did start to wonder about the state of the seat of his trousers! He still didn't like the swings, I had a couple of goes with him and on the last attempt he cried as soon as he realised we were walking towards them. Very odd, as this is a child who loves to be held by the ankles and swung round.
We went out on Saturday. We went to a local aircraft museum which Joseph loved - lots of engines to look at. In my opinion all it needed was an open cockpit for him to sit in. Having said that, if they had got one we'd probably never have managed to leave. He is a little boy who loves buttons and switches. We stopped for a snack and Joseph ate a large ring doughnut by sucking the icing off first and then eating the rest.
After that we went to a different park and Joseph showed his Daddy how to use the slide. I also noticed that he'd got the idea that you need to sit down before you slide and he was climbing up, sitting down and then waiting to be pushed.
We went to the park again this afternoon. I know, four times in one week! Still, there's a good chance we might be moving house quite soon so we might as well make the most of the good quality local facilities whilst they're still in walking distance.
Joseph excelled himself. He climbed up all on his own, sat down in front of the slide and then scooted himself forwards and slid without any help at all. Andy put him on the swing and got him to smile, even if Joseph wasn't fully enjoying it, at least he wasn't crying.