It rained and was gloomy most of today so the moment I saw consistent sun without any threat of dark clouds I whisked Ryan away to the park for a bit of fresh air. We didn't intend on staying to play on the playground, mostly because I feel it's a bit crap and lacking of things for a toddler to do, but also because of the time and we'd be due back to get tea ready since Matt was already on his way home.
It was mostly up and down the steps to the slide and him asking me if it was okay to go across the monkey bar tunnel. I had to tell him he needed to wait until he was a bit taller because he could reach everything better...that, or he'd have to wait for Daddy to come with us some time as I was certainly too short, myself, to be able to guide him through safely.
When it came time to leave I first gave him a choice to "leave now" or "in five minutes," this way he knew our departure was coming. He chose 5 minutes, of course, so after a bit more time to play I took him by the hand and suggested we go see if Daddy needed help at home with anything, like feeding the cat. Usually making him feel his help is needed somewhere is an encouraging tool, but he wasn't having it and he started to whine. This is when I reminded him to use his words and tell me how he felt about leaving the park. He told me he was feeling sad so I told him it was okay to feel sad, but that we would definitely come back again and could even ask Daddy about visiting an even bigger park this weekend. I think it also helped that I was leading him out of the play area as we had this little chat and he was getting more and more distracted.
I think we did quite well considering the tantrums he'd throw in the past. Plus, one of the first things he said to Daddy as we returned home was, "we go to big park now, Daddy?"
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