finally! a trip to the park

as soon as i saw the forecast for this week i cleared my friday morning so that we could go to the zoo. it was going to be 48 and sunny - a real heat wave in comparison to what the weather has been. it actually got above 50 today (i think). it was so nice to be out and our neighbors michael and dylan, with their mom tina, met us at the zoo. madelyn was so excited to see them and quickly took dylan's hand so that they could walk and run around together. they were so cute talking to each other and pointing out what they could see. i probably should have gotten some video, but just took stills - sorry.

it was such a nice day and the zoo was packed with other families who just needed to be out of the house (we saw several other friends and neighbors). as a special treat, we went on a train ride around the zoo. we didn't go last year because the line was always long and we didn't think that madelyn was old enough to appreciate it. and it doesn't run in the winter, so this was our first trip since it started running this year. every time it went by and the whistle blew madelyn froze in her tracks to watch. she would call out "choo-choo" and get excited. michael - who is a train fanatic - suggested that we take a ride before we left. i wasn't sure that madelyn was enjoying the ride until she cried when it was over. she didn't want to get off the train. tonight at dinner she kept telling daddy that the "train ride all done" when we were telling him about our day.

not only did madelyn have a lot of fun with her friends, but she took a 3-1/2 hour nap when we got home. it is a double bonus for me - a nice long walk outside and a nice long break when she takes a long nap afterwards.

tina had mentioned that her boys had gone to the neighborhood park yesterday with their dad. i hadn't realized that all the snow had melted and it was dry enough for playing. so after madelyn's nap we headed down to take a look. madelyn was so excited to be going to the park that she skipped her snack and after nap cartoon. i guess other neighbors had the same idea because we got to see a lot of our friends there. we even got to meet some new neighbors.

madelyn tried out her friend ben's big wheel today. her feet could reach the petals, but were not quite long enough to push them forward. she mainly steered and scooted it backwards with her feet. besides the big wheel she spent most of our time there swinging. she loves to swing! she would reach out to me and call out "hug" so that i would catch her on the upswing in a big hug before letting go so that she would resume her swinging. she was also enjoying acting as the unofficial greeter to everyone that came down to the park. she would say (yell) "hi, girl" or "hi, boy" to anyone coming down the hill until they got close enough that she could tell who it was and then she would call them by name - if she knew it.

the big accomplishment today was that she climbed the rock wall for the first time. she needed a little help because her jeans are a little small (she has pretty much outgrown the 2t clothes now) and she couldn't quite lift her foot high enough. she needed me to help her with the last 1/2 inch to get her toe on the rock. i think that is going to be one of her new favorites this summer. she climbed the wall (which is taller than i am) 3 or 4 times while we were there today.

it is going to become cold/rainy/snowy again this weekend, but it is nice to have a little taste of spring weather to give us hope that we will play outside again soon. love.