Two, Going on Fifteen

The boys and I went to our neighborhood park/playground tonight after dinner. It was really dark because of the time change, but it was a beautiful night (70s with a slight breeze) and J needed to get out of the house... so we went.

There was a group of teenagers hanging out at the playground and J was totally entranced with them. He watched them swing on the swings. He watched them hang out in the tunnel slide. When he heard them say a name, he repeated the name over and over really loudly. He was so proud of himself for hearing one of the cool teenagers' names.

Anyway, as many of you know, J is generally a very timid little guy. He's not quick to try new things or to talk with new people. Sometime before we left Ohio, J had decided that he didn't like slides. Just in the last week or so, we finally convinced J to try the smallest slide at our neighborhood playground and he's gotten really into that slide, but wouldn't try any of the bigger ones--especially not the tunnel slide. Well, tonight after watching the teenagers hang out on the tunnel slide, J decided he was going to do the tunnel slide. He did it and decided it was lots of fun. I had to practically wrestle him off of it when it was time to go home.

Now if only I could get the teenagers to eat vegetables in front of J, then we'd really be set!