Day 400 - .8 Mile

**Sigh** I hate this screen.

Ok, feel free to restart anytime now.

While it's not a consistent presence in my life or anything, it's still an unnecessary road block to face every once in a while. Imagine me if you will, excitedly sitting down to write a nice little story about my precious daughter when suddenly the blue screen hits. There I sit, knowing that the progress I had made on my post was gone, never to be recovered. 

I watch the percentage complete number trend upwards until finally, it hits 100% and nothing further happens. No restart or anything. Finally after an hour of waiting, I make the decision to just perform a hard shut down on my laptop. Unfortunately for me, that hour of time I spent waiting was actually the time I had available to use writing said piece. 

Never fear though as today is a brand new day. I have a precious baby fast asleep in her crib, a warm blanket around my legs, a NASCAR race on in the background (Yay for rain delays), and a story to tell...from last Thursday. Even if it's not from today, I figure it's still better than nothing! Plus, it reminds me of the nice warm days that we get to look forward whenever Spring finally comes.

Let's flashback to day 398. With the temperature soaring into the mid-70's, I would reek of pure foolishness if I chose to stay inside instead of getting outdoors to enjoy some sunshine. I'm certain Ellie would feel the same way even if she doesn't quite have the full vocabulary needed to express that belief yet. Therefore, I made the decision that it was time to hop in the car to go spend a couple of hours at Platte Purchase Park. 

There was one pressing concern that needed to be taken care of before we could head to the park though. Between the sun blazing overhead and the lack of cloud cover accompanying it, that meant Ellie needed to have sunscreen applied. That was especially true since she was dressed in a tank top and shorts. I will say that lathering my child in any kind of substance is pretty miserable, be it sunscreen, lotion, diaper rash cream, or even soap. Ellie will pretty much fight you with every weapon at her disposal. However, I finally succeeded against all odds and was able to get us both loaded up to head to the park.

If this picture fills you with deep, burning, white hot, searing rage, don't be afraid to comment.

Now, I feel the urge to say if you live in the KC Metro area and haven't yet discovered Platte Purchase Park, you are missing out. I love it for the wide, winding trails leading all over the park, snaking their way around the baseball fields, through the trees and tall grass, and next to the playgrounds. As for Ellie, she loves the park for those aforementioned playgrounds specifically.

Upon arrival, rather than first heading to the playground, I decided it might be fun to take a short walk on the paved trails with Ellie toddling alongside. To her credit, Ellie didn't rebel against the idea. Therefore, walk we did. Actually, I was the only one walking the whole time. Ellie chose instead to alternate between frantic running (while screaming), walking backwards, and happily trotting alongside me. There was the occasional detour to be had as Ellie would occasionally dart off of the trail to touch anything and everything in her line of vision with me having to call for her to join me on the trail again.

After what I thought was .4 of a mile, Ellie spotted a park bench right off the path and pointed at it, exclaiming "Snack." As I had indeed packed a snack for her, we sat down and enjoyed a feast of Goldfish and Animal crackers together. Unfortunately for Ellie, this pit stop was also accompanied by the reapplication of sunscreen. After all, no one wants their baby served up burnt.

Once we finished, I decided that we might ought to consider heading back to the trailhead. My logic being that if Ellie had already covered .4 of a mile, she would probably wear out soon. That was confirmed soon enough as on our way back, Ellie showed all of the typical signs of baby fatigue. She chose to not listen when I gave instruction, was easily distracted, and ultimately needed to be carried back to the car on my shoulders. 

Once we finally made it back to the trailhead, I looked at the final mile marker only to realize that instead of starting at the beginning of the trail, we had actually started at the 1 mile marker. In other words, Ellie had covered .6 of a mile before her break and did at least another .2 on our way back to the car. So, even though I probably should have berated her for not being able to complete a simple mile of walking, I was actually super impressed with her stamina for keeping up and doing so well. Also, I'm joking about that berating thing in case you're wondering. 

The lone downside to our little adventure is that as soon as I plopped Ellie in her car seat to head to the playground, she promptly fell asleep before I could even park the car again. Therefore, there was no alternative other than to head home so she could take a nap in her own bed. Poor baby. Her daddy had promised to take her to the park to play and instead just wore her out while walking on a trail while making her put on sunscreen twice. 

Wait, so did I actually go to the park or not?

The moral of the story for Ellie? Make sure to get promises of future park visits in writing from Daddy rather than just trusting him to not get distracted by nice, wide trails. #DaddyWrite