Play Date at the Park

On Wednesday, we tried to take a break from the tantrums and get out. Eleanor and Boo* have been very best friends ever since Boo and her family joined us for a day at the coast. We are in the same ward (church congregation), but Eleanor is in an older class. They see each other at the end of church when Eleanor comes into the nursery with us, and they act like old friends who haven't seen each other in years. Their faces light up, and they call out each other's names as they rush to each other. It's adorable, if I do say so myself. So, we went to have a play date with Boo at the park.

We didn't start off on a good note. I don't know the parks around here very well, and I thought the one in our neighborhood might not be as exciting with its old equipment, so we went to one that I hadn't visited for a couple of years. I had forgotten that the last time I took Eleanor to that park, we had a problem. The problem we had then (and this time, too) was that all the equipment is plastic, which easily forms static electricity, and Eleanor HATES to get a shock. I tried to coax her onto the slide, telling her I would hold her hand. I hadn't touched anything, so I figured I was shock-safe. As soon as she reached for me, my hand gave her a really bad ZAP. Trust broken. So, Eleanor stood, whimpering, watching as Boo climbed and played all over the place. Any time I tried to convince her to play with Boo, she would say, "But it's too shocky!" At first, I had no sympathy for her; I was just frustrated (previous post explains my short fuse).

Then, I started thinking that the whole reason I arranged a play date was to get rid of some cabin fever for her and hopefully cheer things up at home. So, we decided to switch parks. Luckily, Boo's mom, Prissy*, is a really easy-going and understanding friend. Sadly, though, just as we were leaving, we realized that among the large group of kids swarming the park that day was another one of Eleanor's friends. But we were just leaving, so they didn't get a chance to play.

Plan B was to give the park by our house a try, even though Eleanor goes there pretty often, and the equipment is older. The girls loved it. All they needed were swings and slides, and that's what it has. The nice part was that there were no other kids; we had the park all to ourselves. I had to convince Eleanor that nothing would shock her, and it was a hard sell after shocking her at the other park. I could only convince her to go down the slide if Boo went with her as a choo-choo train. Eleanor liked that so much, she wanted to go down together every time. Here are some fun pictures of these cute girls. Notice how Eleanor does what Boo does. She's such a follower!

*Boo and Prissy are not their real names. Their family uses pseudonyms on the net, and I'm trying to respect their safety.