Under Gabriel's watchful eye, that is...sort of. She's safer climbing down off this wall without his "help." I guess I shouldn't be surprised that both boys are very aware of the danger of her toddling toward the street, and if they see it, they both run to stop her.
I went swimming this morning, for the first time in months. It felt great to be back in the water, but it doesn't have the athletic punch that running does. As an overall feel-good exercise, nothing beats it though.
When I got home, I felt energized and in a good enough mood to take all three right out to hunt for another letterbox. This time, an easy one in a nearby park that we know well, but it was still fun to find. Gabriel liked decoding the "clues," though really, a "clue" is something like "pass by the device that allows you to talk long distances." Then again, I wasn't sure he'd recognize a pay phone!
After finding the letterbox and exchanging stamps, the boys played "boat" for a while on the playground, shooting at sharks.
Watching them, I thought about a piece on NPR I'd heard recently about how kids' play has become toy-oriented, rather than activity-oriented, as it used to be (Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills). They had no props other than was attached to the play structure, and all their shooting and pulling each other out of the water was done with pretend shark-guns and pretend ropes. Is this really so rare now? Kids at playgrounds do this sort of thing all the time. In any case, on top of letterboxing, it all amounted to good clean fun.
Then the yard cleanup and hanging around outside. More good clean outdoor fun. It was beautiful today, with no hint of lingering winter chill. T-shirt time!
I sure wish blogger would fix this photo upload problem. [ Later note: I can upload if I do them one at a time. What a drag! ]
3/9/08
No comments:
Post a Comment