April 14, 2008
a lovely weekend
We had our first really warm weekend of the spring, so we went to the park both days. On Saturday we drove down to Alum Rock and met up with the Pursey clan. Elliot spent a lot of time tagging along behind Max and Derek. Typical of our kids, they tried to get into an electrical box that was at the back of the playground, but John yelled at them and they stopped.
On Sunday we spent part of the afternoon at a local playground. Elliot wandered over to a little rock cubby inhabited by a group of bigger kids (they looked about 5-6), and they invited him inside to play. Initially there were just 3 girls, but then a few boys wandered over, too. Gary and Lexi and I parked ourselves on the grass nearby, so we could see and hear what was going on without being intrusive. One of the kids had a long piece of ribbon, which they were throwing out of the window of the cubby. Another kid, on the outside, was putting pine cones on the ribbon, then they'd pull the whole thing back in and count how many fish they had collected. When they started they just had one pine cone on the end of the ribbon, but at its peak one of the kids had collected about a dozen pine cones in a plastic bag just for fishing purposes. Elliot happened to be wearing his "Elliot's Turn" t-shirt, so all the kids knew his name. We kept hearing them telling him stuff, like not to look out of the window, and when to throw the ribbon out. It was hilarious. They also taught him "rock paper scissors," or at least we heard them playing it. Gary guessed that Elliot always chose Rock.
Eventually the kids broke up, and Elliot came over to find us. A man pushing an ice cream cart had been hovering nearby, so we let Elliot pick out a snack. He picked a Spiderman popsicle with gum ball eyes. He liked it, but didn't want to bite it, so he just licked it. Luckily he was in a sharing mood, so I wound up eating most of it before it dripped on to his hands and legs. We got pretty messy anyway, but it was fun. His chewed up the first gum ball and swallowed it; not unexpected for a kid's first chewing gum experience. The second one I saved until we were done with the popsicle, so he just chewed on it until I made him spit it out before we left the park.
Elliot and I planted some flower seeds outside last weekend, and we were both pleased to see that some of them have sprouted. Spring is here!
