It's official. Both of our children are park obsessed. As soon as Kenzie wakes up in the morning, she asks what park we are going to today. It started as "Can we go to the park today?" and now she just assumes we will go and asks which one we will be going to. Will obviously can't ask yet, but he loves to be at the park. He loves swings and crawling around on the playground equipment. He has gotten really good at managing stairs and likes to slide (with help). Then, he cries when we leave.
I am LOVING this stage... at last with Kenzie. I love that she is such an outdoors girl. To top it off, we live in an awesome place because despite our hot summers, we have wonderful fall weather typically and our winters are mild so we are still able to spend a lot of time outdoors. I admit, I don't love this stage as much with Will. I remember taking Kenzie to the park periodically at this age and I didn't love it then either. He is just not able to mesh well with the park setting yet. He can't do a lot and requires constant supervision. Kenzie, can just go. It's awesome. I keep an eye on her but she doesn't need me holding her hand. Will can't walk yet so he is limited. (His walking is an entirely different story... that's a whole different blog post but just suffice it to say that he lacks confidence and a bit of drive because he loves to be held.)
Anyway, back to the park matter at hand. Kenzie is a park-loving machine. Good thing we have so many parks in our area. We have only done about 4 of them in the past couple of weeks, but we have our favorites.
We have one small playground in our neighborhood. They just recently added swings so it is now really nice.
The neighborhood behind our house has an awesome park. Downfall... it's gated. I must admit, if we are park bound and we happen to drive by it when someone is entering, I follow behind like I belong there. I'm fairly certain a lot of the park using residents are aware that people from our neighborhood use their park. At least they are never surprised when they ask where I live and I explain that I live in the neighborhood behind them but know someone in their neighborhood. (Which I do. Granted, we haven't seen that family in over a year and they don't even have park aged kids.)
There is also a park in the recreation complex behind our house. Super close and the kids love it because it has a huge open area to run around in.
We also have one we really like in Mt. Dora, which is one of my favorites. It has two play apparatuses. One is made with really wide walkways and ramps so Will can practice walking on them (it's also made to allow children with disabilities to utilize the playground) and the other is huge but doesn't have all those random sides that drop off to nothingness that make me nervous Kenzie might break her neck.
The kids are so park obsessed, that when we visit family, we have to find a park to run around at. This weekend I took the kids to my parents' house and we found a pretty cool park near their house. Kenzie had a blast playing on the slide and Will loved the swings (as usual).
It's actually crazy to think about how much Kenzie has changed in the last 4 or so months. I credit a lot of it to school. Just 4 months ago she was afraid of slides (despite loving them when she was a bit younger) and wouldn't go anywhere near a swing. Now, she can slide all day long and has finally learned to use a big kid swing. Well, she can't pump her legs yet (but it is funny to watch her try), but she can sit on it and let someone push her without freaking out. #progress
I foresee a lot of park hopping in our future. Next week Steven has the entire week off so I am hoping we get to hit up quite a few parks with him while he is home. My parents will be in town from Wednesday evening through Saturday, so we will definitely be looking for a park on Friday that we don't usually frequent. I am excited for the point when Will decides he wants to walk (I say wants because that boy totally could if he had the drive) because then both kids will get to enjoy the park to the full extent. Until then, I will follow him around like a crazy person while Kenzie continues to grow and experience new things.
I am LOVING this stage... at last with Kenzie. I love that she is such an outdoors girl. To top it off, we live in an awesome place because despite our hot summers, we have wonderful fall weather typically and our winters are mild so we are still able to spend a lot of time outdoors. I admit, I don't love this stage as much with Will. I remember taking Kenzie to the park periodically at this age and I didn't love it then either. He is just not able to mesh well with the park setting yet. He can't do a lot and requires constant supervision. Kenzie, can just go. It's awesome. I keep an eye on her but she doesn't need me holding her hand. Will can't walk yet so he is limited. (His walking is an entirely different story... that's a whole different blog post but just suffice it to say that he lacks confidence and a bit of drive because he loves to be held.)
Anyway, back to the park matter at hand. Kenzie is a park-loving machine. Good thing we have so many parks in our area. We have only done about 4 of them in the past couple of weeks, but we have our favorites.
We have one small playground in our neighborhood. They just recently added swings so it is now really nice.
The neighborhood behind our house has an awesome park. Downfall... it's gated. I must admit, if we are park bound and we happen to drive by it when someone is entering, I follow behind like I belong there. I'm fairly certain a lot of the park using residents are aware that people from our neighborhood use their park. At least they are never surprised when they ask where I live and I explain that I live in the neighborhood behind them but know someone in their neighborhood. (Which I do. Granted, we haven't seen that family in over a year and they don't even have park aged kids.)
There is also a park in the recreation complex behind our house. Super close and the kids love it because it has a huge open area to run around in.
We also have one we really like in Mt. Dora, which is one of my favorites. It has two play apparatuses. One is made with really wide walkways and ramps so Will can practice walking on them (it's also made to allow children with disabilities to utilize the playground) and the other is huge but doesn't have all those random sides that drop off to nothingness that make me nervous Kenzie might break her neck.
The kids are so park obsessed, that when we visit family, we have to find a park to run around at. This weekend I took the kids to my parents' house and we found a pretty cool park near their house. Kenzie had a blast playing on the slide and Will loved the swings (as usual).
It's actually crazy to think about how much Kenzie has changed in the last 4 or so months. I credit a lot of it to school. Just 4 months ago she was afraid of slides (despite loving them when she was a bit younger) and wouldn't go anywhere near a swing. Now, she can slide all day long and has finally learned to use a big kid swing. Well, she can't pump her legs yet (but it is funny to watch her try), but she can sit on it and let someone push her without freaking out. #progress
I foresee a lot of park hopping in our future. Next week Steven has the entire week off so I am hoping we get to hit up quite a few parks with him while he is home. My parents will be in town from Wednesday evening through Saturday, so we will definitely be looking for a park on Friday that we don't usually frequent. I am excited for the point when Will decides he wants to walk (I say wants because that boy totally could if he had the drive) because then both kids will get to enjoy the park to the full extent. Until then, I will follow him around like a crazy person while Kenzie continues to grow and experience new things.
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