Slides and Labor Day

Lately Davy has discovered slides. Previously every visit to the playground was filled with Davy playing with whatever was being used as the ground, this meant wood chips, small pebbles, strange chopped astro-turf, anything that was ground material was what he was interested in. But this summer he discovered the playground equipment, in particular the slides. At first he needed help, one of us would carry him, or lift him up to the other parent who would wait at the top of the slide to help him slide down, meanwhile the other parent would hurry back down to the bottom of the slide to catch him and start the process over again. But lately Davy has figured out how to climb up the playground equipment on his own. This has led to much more fun and a much more tired little boy. It also means that Mommy or Daddy can take Davy to the park on their own without having to have the other parent with them because Davy will do the leg work on his own.

This brings me to Labor Day. Labor day we decided to go apple picking as a family. So we met up with my parents and my sister and her family (Jake, Sydney and Payton) at a local apple orchard. I had suggested that orchard because they had a children's area and I figured it might be fun for the kids to play in. We went apple picking and then I purchased an entrance ticket to the kids area, figuring that Sydney and one of her parents would want to go into the area as well. I didn't realize that was not the case until it was too late. So I took Davy in anyway and we had some fun in there together.

The first place we went to was this corn silo which was basically like a sandbox with corn instead of sand. He liked playing with the corn and helped another little boy fill a toy truck bed with corn. Then he discovered a slide in the corn silo and decided to start going down it. At first he had some trouble navigating the steps on his own, but eventually he got the hang of it. About that time I noticed a large wolf spider that was on the slide. It was right near where Davy was placing his hand when he was climbing up the slide. So I started throwing corn at it to knock it down. I got the spider off the slide and chased it over to the wall of the silo. Then I switched my attention back to Davy, glancing at the spider every so often. Well during one of my glances I noticed the spider was no longer there. So I put it out of my mind, until I saw it on the slide again. But now it was worse, it was no longer trying to hide on the side, it was trying to climb up the main part of the slide. So at this point I kind of started freaking out, which gathered the attention of the other mothers in the silo, which I am sure thought I was kind of crazy or something (from the looks they gave me) because I was freaking out over this spider. One of them pretty much got the spider off the slide and chased it somewhere else. At this point I decided that Davy and I needed to go somewhere else. Because I really didn't want to stay in there anymore if the spider decided to come back.

So we went over to the petting zoo area. At first we walked around it, and Davy waved to all the animals, then I decided to take us in. Davy wasn't really sure about touching any of the animals. So I picked him up and let him watch me pet some of the animals. This gave him some courage. So together we petted a calf, a donkey, a llama, a sheep, and I think a goat. He was fine with petting the animals as long as they didn't try to get their face in his face. I think the calf reminded him a bit of a dog. About the time we got out of there I saw Kevin and found out that everyone else had moved inside and was talking about leaving. So I figured that I should probably just bail on the idea of doing any more in the children's area.

After the apple orchard we went to a park in DeKalb and ate a picnic lunch, after lunch Davy and Sydney went to a playground that was at the park and played a bit, they didn't end up playing for long because it was hot and the grownups were getting way too hot (and I think the kids were too). We went home after that and all three of us ended up napping for a very long time. All in all it was a great day!