We have several parks nearby, some of which are in the city of Gainesville. These are nicely set-up - one is by the lake as well, so it offers some nice scenery. Today, though, we opted for the least crowded one we knew of: that's the one behind our church. It's a nice set-up, with two large jungle gym pieces, complete with about six or seven slides. Also there are swings, and a few other random play sets that sit out in the grass. Madison has enjoyed the play area before, but with the weather being as it has, we haven't been here in quite some time. Today seemed like a perfect day to go check it out, and we figured no one else would be there.
We were right. We stopped the car and Madison jumped out, running towards the slides. She had a wonderful time with us. She has this checklist mentality - just like her father. She had to do everything at least once, making sure she had her fun on each piece of playground equipment.
Then she'd go back to do the things she liked best. In this case, today wasn't a slide day. It was all about the wacky gator - and the swing. More on the swing in a moment. As you can see, the gator is a simple concept. You basically sit there and push back and forth and the gator rocks back and forth. I never saw this as a child, and as I got older I never fully grasped why this would be something fun to do for longer periods of time (example: thirty seconds). Yet she loved this gator, and wanted to sit on it and rock it back and forth - and soon even got Daddy into the act!
Yes, that's right: Daddy got on the gator too. He barely fit. Mommy took a few pictures of us riding the gator. I had the time of my life. You haven't lived life until you've ridden a gator. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
Anyway, next we hopped on a swing. For some reason, Madison hasn't really wanted to swing as much in the past. But all that changed today. Today, she could have sat on that swing another half hour if we let her. Daddy was pushing that swing with her on it for well over twenty minutes. She absolutely loved it. Daddy would do the "pretend to get hit" trick, or the pull the swing as far back as possible and countdown three... two... one... she loved it all. Curious, Daddy would ask her if she was ready to hop off - and she'd say "stay swing." So we stayed on the swing for a long time. It was a perfect trip to the park.
This morning, Madison woke us up very early. We can listen in on her room using our monitor, and we heard something unusual at 5:00 in the morning: giggling. Lots of giggling. She was giggling for a couple minutes straight, and though it was extremely early, it was hilarious! Don't you ever wonder what a three-year-old is dreaming? We may never know. It could have been a visitation from God, or it could have been Madison dreaming that she was hitting Daddy on the head over and over again. No matter what it was, it was tickling her quite a bit. She was laughing so hard she woke us up!
Despite the interruption in sleep, Daddy had a good day at church this morning. The kids have been really enjoying "Exodus."
Mommy and Madison slept in - still recovering somewhat from last week. But the weather was so nice, it couldn't keep us in for too long. Soon we were out there at the playground.
I have a feeling we'll be back again soon this week.
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