When Lizzie was a baby we had a park nearby with some pretty old playground equipment including a merry go round. On days when I had no idea what to do with my child, I would take her to the park. I would push her in the swing for what seemed like hours, then we would go to the merry go round.
It was pretty standard piece of equipment. It had metal bars over the bumpy metal surface painted blue, red and green. It was the kind of surface that if it got too hot, you would burn your legs on it in the hot Florida sun. Thankfully this one was in the shade most of the morning.
For days, Lizzie would sit and I would slowly turn her. Then she started crawling. She would get into everything. One day I took her to the park, set her on the merry go round and she started crawling. With no hesitation I started spinning her. I kept the pace only as fast as she could crawl. Her own personal treadmill. After about 15 minutes, she got tired and I took her home, fed her and put her to bed.
A few years later, the old equipment was replaced with an awesome new playground and now my four kids run and play when the Florida heat isn’t too oppressive. There are many nights especially in the fall that I take the kids to the park just so they can run off energy before bed. They will play and play and play, then we go home and get ready for bed.
Most playgrounds don’t have merry go rounds for various reasons, usually child safety. But when I come across one, I tell Lizzie the story of “when she was a baby…” She just gives me a funny look and asks me to “spin faster.”
It was pretty standard piece of equipment. It had metal bars over the bumpy metal surface painted blue, red and green. It was the kind of surface that if it got too hot, you would burn your legs on it in the hot Florida sun. Thankfully this one was in the shade most of the morning.
For days, Lizzie would sit and I would slowly turn her. Then she started crawling. She would get into everything. One day I took her to the park, set her on the merry go round and she started crawling. With no hesitation I started spinning her. I kept the pace only as fast as she could crawl. Her own personal treadmill. After about 15 minutes, she got tired and I took her home, fed her and put her to bed.
A few years later, the old equipment was replaced with an awesome new playground and now my four kids run and play when the Florida heat isn’t too oppressive. There are many nights especially in the fall that I take the kids to the park just so they can run off energy before bed. They will play and play and play, then we go home and get ready for bed.
Most playgrounds don’t have merry go rounds for various reasons, usually child safety. But when I come across one, I tell Lizzie the story of “when she was a baby…” She just gives me a funny look and asks me to “spin faster.”