September 25, 2002 - Wednesday
We've discovered another playground Monday, in the next town west, that may be better than either of the two we've been going to in our town or the next town to the east. It's probably the newest of the three, although that by itself doesn't help, and features more slides than the others. Actually, by count that may not be true, but there are certainly more big slides, more tall ladders, and more steps to keep Harry interested. The sign beside the playground says for ages 5-12, while a tiny apparatus off in the corner purports to be for ages 2-5. Still, Harry was all over this big playground, including repeatedly climbing a 6-foot straight up ladder and a 6-foot mountain climber-style wall. I can't say I'm entirely comfortable with Harry's lack of inhibition, but I'm not sure it makes much sense to try to keep him away.

Beside, it seems I need to pay even more attention to Jeremy, who, quite surprisingly, was all over the slides himself. And he definitely understands what the slides are for. There's a junior, maybe 4-foot, slide that I put Jeremy down on thinking I'd give him a little thrill and slide him down holding on, but he was far beyond that. When I put him down on the top platform, he was quickly scooting around to get his feet on the slide on his own. I let him and he launched himself down on his belly and slid down with a big smile. It was all pretty cute, but that was just the start for Jeremy. When I let him, he excitedly followed Harry up a staircase to the top of a 6-foot swirly slide and would have gone down that by himself were it not for the close confines of the platform area that made it hard for him to get his legs swung around and onto the slide. I ended up sliding down right behind him, holding one of his arms in my outstretched hand...several times!


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