Outdoors anyone?

Spring is a glorious time of year in NC! Kylie and I have been trying to soak in all the warm, pre-humidity sunshine we can over the past several days. Thursday when I got home from school we took another super long walk in the neighborhood. This time I got to hold Maya's leash because Kylie had her hands full pushing her baby in the stroller. I love getting to spend the time outside, but unfortunately the walk can hardly be considered exercise ~ walking at toddler exploration speed seldom is...

Friday we spent several hours at a nearby park with her friend Susannah. The girls had a great time swinging, sliding and spinning and I enjoyed some "grown-up" talk. Kylie adores Susannah and for the longest time called her SuSu. Recently when she'd pick up her play phone and call she'd tell me she was talking to SuSu-nana, but Friday she walked up to her at the park and said, "Hi Susannah" just as clear as a bell. Susannah smiled, looked at her mom and said, "Did you hear that? Kylie knows my name!" Susannah's name, like many other things Kylie says are getting much clearer. It's exciting to hear her language skills develop, but also a touch sad to hear the sweet, "Ah wu yah!" transform into "I luv ou!"

Saturday Ian had a CCC board meeting, so I decided to embrace the sunny morning skies and take Kylie ~ and Maya at Kylie's insistence ~ to another nearby park. My cousin Tricia and her three kids met us there. The boys got into a soccer game with a group of brothers there while Kylie was more interested in walking the mulch edging like a balance beam, trying to throw sand over the volleyball net, and hanging from equipment. It is almost frightening to me that she seems to have no fear ~ the bar she is hanging from is at my eye level and she kept insisting that I step back until she'd call me for assistance in getting down. So I did what any mother concerned about her child's safety would do ~ I took a picture...

Sunday we spent most of the day (with the exception of lunch and a long nap) outside at Mama's. Ian had to stay at church for the second service and I forgot to get our clothes out of the car before left, so we were stuck in our church clothes for a while. It didn't stop us from helping weed one of Mama's flower beds, feeding the horses, or playing with the dogs before Ian got there. After nap time we took walks, rode the tricycle and pushed baby around in Grandma's umbrella stroller.

Monday a good portion of our day was spent with Olivia's family, but it was nice outside so between nap time and going to speak at an AWAA adoption seminar (we were there to encourage folks as some that have gone through it) we were on the back deck. Kylie was playing in the rice table and then came in to get her stroller with both of her babies. I'm not sure what I captured with the camera a few minutes later, a rice bath I guess?

Today was another clear blue sky, warm, yet low-humidity day, so we headed to meet two of the women I work with at preschool at a park. (Yes, I usually work on Tuesdays, but our county uses schools as polling stations, so kids have the day off). Kylie had a blast sliding, swinging, climbing and sitting in cars for about three hours with the five other kids. There were two other girls in the group, but they both started kindergarten this year, so she spent a lot of her time with little Grant who is 4 months younger. One scary moment was when I had taken my eyes off of her for about ten seconds. In that time she had climbed up a ladder ~ she's FAST ~ and her feet were at my eye level (I'm 5' 9"). Just as I glanced her way, her left foot slipped and she was hanging on for dear life with her arms. Thank goodness for the hanging practice on Saturday...

I've still got a way to go (to meet my goal of losing 10% of my start weight), but tonight's scale reading made me happier than last week!


By the way, Aunt CiCi, did you hop on the scale last night? I left the camera on the counter thinking you'd use it after bible study, but there were no scale pictures with your feet...