Two trips to the park

Spring arrived on Wednesday! It would seem that Mother Nature realized that the last cold snap needed to head out and we were greeted with sunny skies and warmth on the first day of spring. Now that Kylie's barrage of medical appointments (one year checkup, immunization round 1, reading TB test, eye exam, and a trip to the audiologist) are done, we actually get to enjoy the pretty days!

Wednesday afternoon Ian, Kylie and I met my cousin Carol, her nephew Jordan (visiting from Ohio), and her daughter Sara for lunch at my fav ~ Chick-fil-a. A side trip was made to Lowe's to buy a room darkening shade for Kylie's room. (We are trying to figure out why ~ and fix the problem ~ Kylie only sleeps for about 30 minutes in her crib when she had napped for about 2 hours on our bed). Then it was home for Kylie's nap (35 minutes, a soothing and then 25 more ~ better with the shade). Sara, Jordan and I went outside to throw a tennis ball for Maya while Kylie slept and then we headed to the park for Kylie's first time!

She wasn't too sure of the playground equipment, but Jordan and Sara sure had fun. They had races down the slides, hung on bars, and rode frogs and pelicans for about 45 minutes until Carol met us there to pick them up. Jordan was very loving with the girls and I sure wish he lived around here to help out with babysitting ~ not that a 17 year old has anything better to do with his time... Funny thing is that it seems like just yesterday that he was Kylie's age! (Sorry for posting the frog picture Jordan ~ I know I said I wouldn't, but it was just too hard to pass up...)Then today Kylie and I headed to yet another nearby park to meet my former roommate Stephanie and her 18 month old son, Alex. Steph, Alex and I have had several lunch dates lately, but this was the first time Kylie met them. After one trip down the slide with mommy Kylie still wasn't too sure if she liked it or not. Luckily Alex has no fear and LOVES to slide. He decided to show Kylie how it was done.From then on Kylie was hooked and pointed to the top of one of the baby slides over and over again. She happily slid down with mommy holding her hands. At the bottom she would start clapping and then do a little dance. Talk about cuteness! After the slides got a bit old, Kylie discovered the sand. Sadly, mommy was a bit slow in getting the camera out, but I promise that she happily let sand run through her fingers for about 5 minutes before this shot was taken.Oh, if you're wondering about the ball cap, I haven't seen any of the girlie floppy hats yet. Maybe it is because I haven't been to a store in about 2 weeks, but maybe I wasn't looking in the right places then... Thankfully Alex had a spare cap, so at least it was khaki colored and somewhat coordinated with her pink onesie! Alex said, "Pink ~ NO WAY!!!"

And I'm not sure exactly how much Kylie and Alex enjoyed themselves, but Stephanie and I sure did. It was nice to eat lunch in the warm breeze and have adult conversation while watching my curious daughter experience something new. On this last shot, again I was about 2 seconds too late to catch Alex and Kylie intently looking at each other. But it is still really cute I think, kinda like two kids too shy to really look at each other on a first date.

"So, come to this hill on the playground often?"