Hula Hoop

Monday was quite an adventure.  The weather was lovely so I loaded Anna up in the car and drove, sneakily, past Whitehall (some grad student housing filled with many playmates!) to see if any of our friends were out so we could join them.  I saw Jodi during my drive by and when we walked over we soon saw Elizabeth and Michele was there too.  Apparently there was a planned event that we stepped into for Earth day and we were welcomed with the most friendly arms.  Anna, along with many other toddlers, helped plant flowers by the entrance of the apartment complex.  She loves getting dirty and some of the other kids loved finding worms.  The flowers were pretty.  We spent the rest of the morning playing in the playground.  Anna found slides, cars, and balls.  The boys even brought out their basketball hoop and practiced dunking.

One time Anna brought over some hard plastic “roller blades.”  Anna remembers with a vivid memory the episode of Sesame Street where Big Bird hurts his wing while rollerskating.  She says “Big Bird wing owie” at the most unexpected moments.  So I almost had to let her use them.  I held on to her tight but she enjoyed it quite a bit, she even insisted after a lap that I let go and went a bit by herself.  I was quite relieved when she became distracted by a lonely purple ball.

I think her favorite find of the day in the treasure trove of Whitehall courtyard toys, was a hula hoop.  She even told Jacob at lunch, “Anna love hula hoop.”  Jacob picked one up for her at the dollar store the same day.  When she caught a glimpse of it she went from almost asleep on Jacob’s shoulder to awake, excited, and happy. “PURPLE HULA HOOP!  ANNA’S!”  No joy is complete until you can share it with others, so here is a video of her letting orange baby have a turn.  She has also let us have turns and Jacob even got a turn with Anna, two people and one hula hoop is a sure recipe for giggles, in case you didn’t know.

And in big news:  Anna finally talked us into turning her carseat around.  Anna and I were out and about, I was waiting for her to climb in, our new routine, and she stopped at the seat next to her carseat and faced forward.  She sat so nicely, hands in lap, I told her she wasn’t quite big enough for that seat but maybe we could talk Dad into turning the seat around so you could face forward like Mommy and Daddy.  She picked up quick on that sentence “turn seat around” complete with handwaving.  Jacob turned her around for her 23rd month, almost two-year birthday.  I guess we are growing up and everything.