Outside is Outstanding!

Emma love love LOVES being outside. On more than one occasion her need to be outside has resulted in a tantrum. She lets us know it's time to play outside by going to either the front or back door and hitting it. She also lets us know by pushing either her stroller or wagon around the sunroom (where they are kept when we're not using them).

Tonight, Kurt is out playing cards so Emma and I were on our own. When we got home, I put an Elmo movie on so that I could get dinner ready (usually, one of us gets dinner and the other one plays with Emma)without her hanging on my legs and tripping me. After dinner, she went back to the living room and was happily playing and watching Elmo while I cleaned up. I walked into the living room and asked, "Emma would you like to go outside?" She was immediately on her feet saying "OOHHH!" with a very excited look on her face.

We walked over to the playground in our development and Emma had fun climbing on the toys. She has mastered climbing up onto the platforms and loves the slide. She has learned how to walk up to the top of the slide just far enough to sit down before pushing herself to get going. It is VERY cute!

There are two sets of slides on the equipment at our playground. A little slide and then a bigger slide complete with a bump in the middle. Until early this week, Emma was only interested in the little slide which was great because I could be up on the platform with her and then jump down and get to the bottom of the slide in about 3 seconds. One evening Kurt and I were both at the playground with her and she wanted to go down the big slide and had a lot of fun! Tonight, she wanted nothing to do with the little slide and only wanted to slide down the big one. The first time, I was able to get down to the bottom of the slide before she pushed off to catch her. The second time, she must have thought she really is a big kid because she didn't wait for me before she pushed off, even though I was telling her over and over, "Wait for Mommy, Wait for Mommy!"  As you might have guessed, she flew down the slide and off the end. Luckily the playground is layered with woodchips so it was a pretty soft landing. She was mostly scared but finished crying and was up climbing again in about 30 seconds.

Although sometimes it's rough when we can't go outside when the weather is bad, we're really thankful that Emma enjoys being outside so much!