Going out to play

A wagon ride! Girls in matching,
adorable outfits!

It's that time of year again. The brilliant leaf colors pointed out by me and ignored by both kids every car ride (someday they'll appreciate them!), the frantic searching for outerwear that fits and isn't stained, and the forced trips to the park to "store up" outdoor fun before winter's chill hits for real. Ah, fall.

One of many benefits of being a stay-at-home mom is that on glorious days, whatever the season, I generally get to go outside. In daylight, and to play in grass, or leaves, or snow, or whatever's out there. Depending on the rest of the day's activities, and the general mood of the children, this may mean we don't actually make it past the doorstep until 5:00 p.m., and must return into the house 15 minutes later for diaper changes, forgotten stuffed animals, dinner prep, and whatnot, but it's more than many people get, and I'm grateful for it.

Aunt Nancy and Kalina
showing off their animal
face hats.

I have a rule that as long as everyone's healthy (and often even if not), and it's not absolutely sopping wet or below freezing cold, or meltingly hot (and usually even then, if only so we appreciate the inside of our four walls that much more), we will be spending a portion of our day outdoors. Matt, being outdoorsy himself and no doubt hoping his girls won't turn out as "soft" as I am when it comes to bugs, dirt, and whatnot, seems to fully support this. So out we go.

Sometimes we call it "getting the mail," or at other times, in accordance with a strange old family saying handed down through my dad's family, "getting the stink off." Either way, we're outside. [Side note: the other day Kalina insisted that her kittens had already licked the stink off of her. Nice try, Sweetie, but you're still going outside! Now, march.]

While Elise enthusiastically pounds on the door at the mere mention of "outside," Kalina often has to be prodded through it. Sometimes I bribe her with the promise of a wagon ride, or wax paper on the slide (thanks, Grandma and Grandpa! :) ) or a "snack picnic." Sometimes these don't work and, well, I simply have to prod.

Aunt Nancy and Elise goofing around
with a giraffe.

On the best days, we head to a park. Being in a new locale, we keep discovering new ones. Ranging from fabulous to somewhat sketchy, they at least ignite the inner explorer in each one of us. But that brings up new challenges, mostly to the tune of, "How do you keep two small children from becoming dangers to themselves and each other six or more feet in the air, especially when the oldest insists on clenching several stuffed animals under her arm and occasionally on you acting out scenarios using them." How?

When Elise was still tiny, it was easy. She'd sit happily in her stroller, or submit to being carried in my mei tai, or even hang out on a blanket, while I kept a careful eye on Kalina. Of course, during this phase Kalina mostly disliked parks of all kinds and often vied Elise for the stroller. At which point I'd let the baby dangle from a swing (during this time she liked swings, as long as they weren't swinging) and let Kalina sit in the stroller, and there we were, at the park. Whee!

Our first trip to the zoo here,
and the hippos decided to
spar. Elise and I were both
entranced.

As Elise grew, she began to want to crawl around, too. And eat the mulch. My strategy was to barricade her on some playground platform so she didn't get too dirty/munchy and hope Kalina didn't do anything too scary, or ask me to perform too many kitten puppet shows. This would generally work in 30-second increments.

Next, Elise wasn't content to merely crawl around parks, she desperately wanted to walk and climb stairs. Problem being that she couldn't walk--not alone, at least, or effectively tell a 3-inch drop from an 8-foot one. She also developed more of an opinion in the direction she wanted to head. Kalina, meanwhile, decided she liked parks again, as long as I was playing with her. During this mercifully short-lived phase, I attempted to steer a somewhat unwilling Elise in safe directions, usually toward Kalina, while cajoling the bigger girl's requests to, "Make the kittens not know who will catch them at the bottom of the side," with lots of, "I'd love to, Hon, just a minute!" I'm not sure any of us really had any fun at the park during these outings.

Our current park phase has both girls exploring happily on their own. Elise, who still hasn't developed a healthy appreciate for heights, scales anything she possibly can and crawls through the narrowest tunnels, nearly oblivious to the fact that I'm often in hot pursuit right behind her because otherwise I won't make it to the nearest dropoff before she does. Kalina, on the other hand, now slides, climbs and ventures away from the playground with only Lamby for company. Which is just wonderful, I think, even as I chase her down while holding Elise so that the little one doesn't get herself into a sticky situation without me around to rescue her. Sometimes this little dance we do has me getting more exercise than both of the girls combined, a fact I probably don't appreciate as I should. Occasionally, though, if Elise takes an interest in gathering sweetgum seeds or Kalina takes Lamby to try out the swings, I get to focus on just one child, or simply keep an eye on both of them. How peaceful!

We're all warily intrigued by a colder, snowier winter than we've been used to, and unanimously voted to purchase a bright pink plastic sled at Target the other day to try on our backyard hill at the first falling of snow. Kalina is already making big plans to bring her kittens and Peep, the penguin, outside, while I'm mentally stuffing each of them into a nice, dry Ziploc baggie for the adventure. Elise has already practiced walking around in Kalina's rainboots, which I'm sure will prepare her perfectly for wielding her own size of snowboots around the yard.

And so our outdoor adventures will continue. Rain or snow or shine, like them or not. Fortunately, we usually do.