a day at the park

We had a quiet saturday afternoon, so I finally took the kids out for a walking tour of the neighbourhood parks. There's three within a block of our house. Unfortunately, the big one was fenced off - I'm assuming for the winter, due to liability (it belongs to our neighbourhood association). But the two smaller ones were open. Joan slept the whole time, but John had fun, even though he was the only kid there. He took turns on the swing with his imaginary friend Invisible John. (Man, does that kid need a social outlet! Unfortunately, every program in this city that I've seen so far requires potty training. He's almost there. He's in underwear all day now, and if we're home, he uses the toilet to pee, but not to poop. But he wet himself on the way home from the park, without even realizing it until it was too late, so the away-from-home training isn't going quite as well. But it should be soon! Hopefully, we can be done by the time we get home from Edmonton, so I can enrol him in something fun. There's pre-school programs here through the city's recreation dept - once a week type things. There's "pirate adventure" sessions, or crafty ones, or sporty ones, or space themed ones. Lots of things to choose from that I think he might like. I'm going to try to get him into something like that, at the very least. The spring session starts just after we get back.)

John's favourite part of the outing was finding a box of toys marked "free to a good home" sitting outside our neighbourhood community centre. He took a few cool things, and even chose something especialy for Joan, which I thought was very generous of him. My only worry is that now he'll come to associate the parks here with new toys. "The closed park is my favourite park. That's where the toy box is!" he said as we got home.

But anyway - thought you might appreciate some pictures! (Don't be alarmed by no hat. He didn't want it, and took down the hood himself. We supposedly had a little chinook this week, so it's mild - for now.

Riding "the wild animal"

His first time on a tire swing! He thought it was really cool, and told Dad all about it that night.

He liked this, too. But not for long. I think it made him feel sick.

The view from park 2. Our house it just out of view - we live at the base of this big hill. This is actually a leash-free dog park. Some people use it as a sledding hill, but there's an even better sledding hill (no dog poop) just a couple blocks away, with an outdoor skating rink, too. But John was too tired to see it on this outing. Pretty big hills for a little guy. He was pooped by the time we got home.

And just because she's so darned cute, a picture of Joan, taken just before the big move.