A pit stop for coffee and carrot stix. Refreshing to sit outside.
We arrive at the park after a toddler paced walk with pauses for jumping off ramps and stomping in puddles. Last time I was here it looked like Autumn, now it looks like Winter. The trees are bare, it looks so cold.
Usually at this point Ivy would let go of my hand and run free, but today if I let go of hers she reminds me "Mummy hand". It is too cold not to hold hands (and she won't wear gloves. Although she will wear socks on her hands in the house and call them gloves!).
She remembers that she is still carrying her carrot stix, the walk to the top of the hill is slow now!
We find puddles at the top! This is a pretty reliable spot when on a puddle hunt, actually. Ivy also recalls from a family walk here "Ball... Daddy ball... kicking" that Kwojo had been bouncing and kicking the ball on a wall here. I'm impressed by her memory, that was a while ago!
We reach the playground, and find an even bigger and better puddle. A pond that's not meant to be there.
She sits down next to me after some satisfying puddle poking, splashing, and for the first time, wading.
All that adventuring must have tired her out because she rode on my back home, and I could see her head lolling as she didn't bother to try fighting sleep, and slept soundly on the sofa when we got home.
