There is a two week gap from when my daughter got out of school to when my boys will get out of school. I wish I could say we are making good use of the time, but things are proving to be more difficult than they should. However, yesterday was a good day for us.
When my wife went out to take care of a bunny client I asked my daughter if she wanted to go to the zoo. She told me no and that she wanted me to play with her. After we built a magnetile tower in the front room she decided she wanted to go somewhere. I again asked about the zoo and she said not without her brothers, and told me she wanted to go to a park.
I decided to drive out to the Mt. Trashmore park as we haven’t been there, ever, and especially since they renovated the playground. It was quite a nice playground and she immediately ran to the top of the hill where they had built slides directly into the side of. It isn’t as fun as it sounds. It is a series of several slides instead of one long slide built into the side of the hill. She still had fun and that is what matters.
The rest of the playground was big and new and nice but nothing that special. She climbed up a couple areas, got stuck, and had to be rescued. She then found the small obstacle course and climbed through that which ended at a slide with no sides which scared her and she needed help riding down it.
At this point I was hungry and she was getting tired. She swang for a bit and I asked about food every five minutes. She had a conversation with the boy swinging next to her and they became best friends the way 4 and 5 year olds that just met do. We then headed back to the big hill for more sliding and then onto the parent-powered merry-go-round, where myself and some other parents spun several children around until they were too dizzy to continue.
After this Abby was ready to eat. She asked for Happy Meals and I tried to negociate for fried chicken. Eventually she asked for Chick-Fil-A because they have a play area and I asked why she wanted to go to a play area when we were already at one. It was then that the negotiations turned in my favor and we headed to Jollibee.
After eating our meal we headed home and she took a short nap before picking up the boys and heading to the dentist. It was a nice daddy/daughter outing, but unfortunately the rest of the time without the boys is getting busy and I don’t think we’re going to get another day like that.
David Huzzard Writes 