Today's park playdate took some management on my part and compromise on the kids' parts.
Peter wanted to ride his bike on the bike path. Who could blame him? It was level, empty, broad, and paved - perfect for practicing his superfast peddling. Unfortunately, Lucy didn't want to ride, possibly because she insisted on bringing her tricycle (which is so slow and takes so much energy to ride, I really don't blame her).
Lucy wanted to swing. Surprise, surprise.
Thomas wanted to get down and crawl and play and climb and climb and slide.
For so long, the kids have been so easy to please with the same activity. I'm fearful that time is ending, to some degree. I can see it in our favorite places to visit - at the pool, at the Please Touch Museum, and at the zoo. Not only do Peter and Lucy and Thomas want to do different things, they're quite content doing these different things by themselves. For Peter this is an especially large milestone, as he gets anxious by himself. My parenting challenge lately has been to reassess just how much free space they can have without endangering them. (Too much. By their nature, they're kind of always in danger.)
So at the park today: Peter took a spin around the bike path, by himself, as I watched his every pedal and reminded myself that we were in a very nice park with very nice people and I could see him and he wasn't really that far away. He came back with a satisfied, smug smile of pride on his face, which told me that his risk was worth it, both for him and for me.
I gave Lucy a few pushes on the swing, reminded her the basics of pumping, and put her in charge of her own angular momentum. She gave it a go, then sweet-talked an older playgroup friend into giving her a few more pushes.
And Thomas found his way to the top of the toddler play structure and down the slide. Just as he knew he would.
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