The Playground with No Baby Swings: Never Again.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

It was 70 the other day - FINALLY!  Spring!  So I loaded the kids up in the stroller and started off for a walk around the block.  Except John Paul REALLY wanted to go to the playground.

Who needs exercise when you're pushing 110+ pounds of kids in a stroller?  Okay, the big kids walked most of the way...

Weeeell...  Okay?  I remembered Andrew saying that the last time he took the kids to the playground, the babies were happy hanging out in the stroller watching them play.  So we walked the 0.6 miles and arrived at the lovely park with awesome HUGE climbing structures and absolutely nothing for the babies to do.

Within 7 seconds Mary Claire wanted out of the stroller.  So did Elizabeth.

Oh, did I mention they weren't even wearing shoes?

So I hoped that maybe they would be happy to sit on a bench with me?

And by sit on a bench I mean immediately climb down off the bench and test just how edible wood chips are.

John Paul takes off climbing this enormous faux-rock formation and Cecilia decides SHE wants to climb it, too.  I tell her no, she's too young.  Within 4 seconds she had scaled her way to the top and couldn't figure out how to get back down.

Awesome.

Babies on the bench, Mom trying to coach the 3-year-old down from the VERY tall peak, I look away for a second and hear ear-piercing screams and see that, oh yes, she has fallen off (thank goodness for those wood chips, which provided a nice cushy spot for her little booty to plop down).  So I leave the babies on the bench and retrieve the sobbing mess, who thankfully decides she's okay within 10 seconds (and the ONE other family at the playground is proooobably looking at me with crazy judging eyes because WHY would this insane lady bring all these tiny kids for a playground that is clearly not made for them?  Actually they probably thought I was the babysitter...).

So we move to the slightly less-dangerous side of the playground and the babies practice climbing up the slide and eating dirt while John Paul and Cecilia do their thing.  Thank goodness they were willing to abide by my "5 more minutes" warning which really ended up being a "1 more minute" warning - in Mom time sometimes 5 minutes takes 30, sometimes it takes 1.  Magic, I tell you.

But seriously, what is WITH these playgrounds with no swings?   I mean, I get the no "big kid" swings - those things are just an accident waiting to happen.  But the baby swings?  Somewhere contained to put my twins so that they feel like they're playing without actually being near wood chips?  So necessary.

I'm just at a complete loss for how to get outside with all 4 kids...  I'm thinking they'll be obsessed with the water table when it gets warm enough, and I'm planning on making one of those "tents" out of garden stakes and pole beans or snap peas or something, which I think will occupy them.  And we may also just need to get a second baby swing for the swing set...

Experienced moms of twins:  What do you do?  Where do you GO?  Or do you just not go anywhere?

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