park

We had a playdate scheduled at a local park. Our playdate didn't show, but several other families did over the course of the hour - and Esme tried her best to play with everyone. She had a lot of fun and will probably sunburn some! It was nice to see her take turns on the slide and invite other children to chase her, copy them etc... The only thing I saw and wanted to discourage was pushing smaller children out of the way if they were playing with something she wanted or taking too long at something. She climbed the round open rung ladder up to the slide several times - which I was a little nervous about, but she was really concentrating and did not slip once. She outran everyone consistently all day long - no matter how long they had been there. Her cheeks are very pink and now she has a belly full of chicken leg and juice. She is sitting upside-down in Daddy's chair singing along with Muppet Show tunes. I'm sure she will crash after a bit or get very very cranky.

Nix the muppet show - now she is building a large structure out of boxes, dresser parts and other miscellanea in the house. Looks like we're in for a long afternoon!

observations: One two year old girl was nearly the same size, but she was also as tall as the three-and-some girl and less than a head shorter than the five year old. I'm just not sure if she is as tall for her age as they say around here -- or if the growth chart that says she is short for her age is completely off-base. ?? It doesn't really matter, I know! She is as tall as she is (about 37 inches) and there really shouldn't be any comparison at this age.

Several of the other grandmothers (there was only one other actual mom with the toddlers - the rest were grandparents) were complaining about the fall birthdays not going to school until they are six. The five year old had just turned five and missed the cutoff for K - so they were sending her to preschool 2 days a week for the year. ?? Mark says that the school system around here is more about child herding than education. He may be right.