Hey You!

On Monday we went to Carkeek park for a playdate with some friends from Etta's co-op class. (As a side note, it is interesting how much older kids this age can look when it has been one month since you have seen them. They are becoming full-size toddlers.)

So Etta had four friends her age there at the park who she knows well. But who she wants to play with is a blond 6 year old boy who catches her eye. I am not sure why she become fixated on him, but she sure did. It started with her looking at him and yelling "hey you! hey you!" Then she climbed up to be by him. Since it was very clear to me at this point that she was watching him and wanting to get his attention, I let him know that she wanted to say hi. She pointed to her chest and said "Etta", so I helped the introduction process along a bit. Thankfully the boy had 2 younger sisters so he was patient and kind to her. He let Etta sit by him and then smilingly tolerated it when she followed him around yelling "Hey you!" He then proceeded to gather a bunch of sticks, some long and some short, and yelled that he had weapons for sale. Etta, of course, wanted some. So he was walking around with one long stick in one hand, a handful of short in the other. Miss wants-to-be-a-big-girl was doing the exact same thing. Where he went, she went. Even if she fell on her bum halfway up because it was a steep dirt trail. At one point he clambered over a bunch of big rocks. So she leaned over a big rock, dropped her sticks over, then attempted to find a way around. He sat & waited for her & held her sticks so that other kids would not take them.  It was pretty funny to watch. I made sure to thank him at the end for playing so nice with her.  And Etta gave him a loud "Dye" ("bye") and a wave.

Addie, meanwhile, was enjoying going down the salmon slide. It is a big sculpture of a salmon with a tunnel slide through the middle of it. You enter through its open mouth and exit through its rear. Addie was having a lot of fun announcing that the fish was eating her then she was coming out in its poop.

These two keep a smile on my face :)