Playground fun

Last weekend the weather was so pretty. Jonathan and I have been wanting to take Caroline to the playground to try out the swings. We figured she'd love them since she likes any kind of rapid motion that seems to frighten her briefly. Surprise, surprise - lots of other mommies and daddies must have had the same idea. The playground had kids everywhere and all the swings were full. So as we were waiting for a swing to open up, we thought we let Caroline try the slide.

Again, we thought she'd like it because she loves it when we swoosh her around and up and down. Apparently it's not the same. She was not a fan, not that she disliked it, she just wasn't thrilled by it. I personally think it was the static electricity that always accompanies those plastic slides. We'll try again next time and see if she warms up to it.

Finally, a baby swing opened up. We quickly made our way over to it, plopped her in, gave her a little push...instead of the delighted, happy squeals we expected, we got tears. What on earth?! Was the entire playground experience too much? Was the plastic of the swing too hard? Of course we promptly removed our teary-eyed baby from the swing lest the other parents start talking about us behind our backs. Needless to say, Jonathan and I were a little disappointed she didn't like it. However, not deterred, we went over to the big kid swings and sat her in our lap and gave a little push - ah, the noise we had been waiting to hear - that sweet sound of happy!

As we stood watching the other babies who now filled the baby swings, we realized we had done it all wrong. We had put her in the front of the bucket swing (basically pressing her belly against the front rim which made her look down). All these other babies were sitting to the back of the bucket. That's why the other parents were whispering - they could tell we were baby swing rookies! They knew she was going to cry. We figured she had had enough new experiences today so headed home, vowing we'd come back and try it the correct way again soon.

Sunday was just as pretty as Saturday so we once again headed to the playground. It's about half a mile from our condo, so it's a nice little walk to get there. This time, we confidently approached the baby swing. Skillfully placing our baby into the BACK of the bucket, turned on the camera, and gave a little push... hooray! She's loved it! What a difference the placement of her little heinie made! We'll definitely be back for the swings!