Playground Tales

We had a flash of good weather (50's and 60's) last week, so we hopped on down to the local playground.

This was the first time Cambrie really started to play on the playground. She climbed up onto the sprawling playground structures, poked at the little side-games in the walls (like the tic-tac-toe blocks you spin around), teetered across the wiggly bridge, and nearly got knocked over by older kids playing tag at least three times.

Since her birth, Cambrie has been intensely aware of the world around her. She's loves to watch, analyze, and observe, and it's part of what makes her seem like such a mellow, chill, well-behaved child. Though I've always loved this feature in her, I may have to train her to squelch it on command--the tendency to pause and watch can be treacherous on the playground. But with our coaching, she managed alright.

Our favorite part of the day was watching Cambrie navigate the slides all by herself. It's a little thrilling (can something be just a little thrilling?--this was) to see your baby girl willingly launch herself onto a low-friction surface where she'll have little control over where she ends up. Can she do that? Isn't it terrifying? Well, she did, and apparently not. Maybe next time I need a surge of courage (or blissful ignorance, I guess), I'll just look to my daughter.

All in all, the outing was a good one--refreshing, enlightening, and relaxing. It was exciting to see Cambrie slowly moving from being mainly a spectator to more of a participant. A player. I guess we'll just have to see what our next playground adventure holds...