April, 2013 Archive

Leader of the Park

by Alison Friedman in Marvelous Madelyn, Mommy's Musings

Once Madelyn became fairly mobile on two feet, I started to take her to the park. There’s a beautiful park down the street from our place that has big grassy fields, two play structures, and lots of picnic areas. It’s pretty near perfect, and I was always so excited to introduce this kind of outside play to Madelyn. But she wanted nothing to do with it. Taking after her parents’ Olympian-like athletic abilities (no), she was not at all comfortable with running and climbing and sliding on what other children seem to not get enough of!

I tried every few weeks to see if she’d decided yet to be a park kid, and nope. It wasn’t happening.

Until this week. Her squeals of delight were worth the wait! She has gained so much confidence and loves to go up and down the stairs, whiz down the slide, and explore the nooks and crannies. Watching her figure out how to go around an obstacle or manage the stairs that are still a little too steep for her short legs is fascinating. She is fearless when she scampers while every few steps, she looks back to make sure I’m still there.

Madelyn climbs, runs, and explores like an Ironbaby.

Madelyn climbs, runs, and explores like an Ironbaby.

Madelyn's new favorite event at the Park Olympics: The Slide

Madelyn’s new favorite event at the Park Olympics: The Slide

Watching her climb higher makes me simultaneously feel proud and nauseous. #MamaBear

Watching her climb higher makes me simultaneously feel proud and nauseous. #MamaBear

I also love watching Madelyn interact with other kids. One sweet boy who was almost exactly her age sat down on the two-by-two slide next to her and held out his hand to take hers and she wasn’t giving it up! I suppose we should be glad about this and hope she keeps this up in 14 years.

However, my kid is also socially fearless! There was a group of boys who were older than Madelyn, maybe about four, who were eating a snack in the corner of the sandbox. Madelyn walked right up to them, squatted down, and pointed to their crackers. They guarded their crackers with their lives and said “SHE’S GONNA STEAL YOUR CWACKAS!!! TELL HUH TO GET A WAAAAAY.” Listen up, boys, she’s not going to steal your cwackas. She’s just curious and friendly. Be a mensch and don’t be so intimidated by a toddler who doesn’t even talk.

Madelyn has also begun to have commercial recognition because we’ve chosen not to raise her under a rock. There’s TV and Target, so she knows about characters. We already know that she’s a die-hard Elmo fan, but she also has taken a major liking to Minnie Mouse. I think she likes Mickey, too, because of his mouse persuasion, but it’s really all about the bow and lashes (such a GIRL!). So when she saw another little girl with a giant Minnie on her t-shirt, Madelyn gasped, went “Ooooooo!” and pointed. The other little girl looked at her like she was nuts, and I decided to bridge the confusion gap and say “Oh, Madelyn likes your Minnie shirt! Do you like Minnie Mouse, too?” and the other little girl stared at me blankly while I suddenly got very self conscious around a preschooler. Madelyn couldn’t get it together and she was fangirling out over this t-shirt and got closer, bent down, and went nose-to-Minnie’s-nose. Yes, my daughter’s face was millimeters away from this other little girl’s bellybutton area. Her caretaker, thankfully, thought this was just as hysterical as I did, while the girl patiently waited for Madelyn to get a hold of herself who was shrieking with utter glee. Finally, for one more zinger, Madelyn blew an air kiss — “mmmmm-ah!” — to this girl’s t-shirt and then continued to point. I decided enough was enough, and scooted her toward the slide for another ride. Toddlerworld is so much different than adult world. Thank goodness this little girl was tolerant enough of Madelyn’s obsession. What if adults walked around pointing to things they loved on other peoples’ t-shirts? What if I walked up to a grown up wearing a t-shirt with a bottle of wine on it and kissed it? Not OK.

Madelyn spots Minnie Mouse on a t-shirt from across the park. It was the gasp heard 'round the world.

Madelyn spots Minnie Mouse on a t-shirt from across the park. It was the gasp heard ’round the world.

Madelyn’s new park antics are definitely entertaining for everyone. Can’t wait to take her again and see how she continues abolish social graces.