Day 421 - Well Done

I find myself remembering just how common it was in the first year of Ellie's life for me to write a post revolving around me lamenting just how little I knew about parenthood. Well, good news, I'm almost two years into this journey and I think I'm beginning to develop a rudimentary understanding of how this whole child-rearing thing is supposed to go. Yay, me!

That being said, there are still quite a few small things that I neglect to think about even after two years. For example, one of those would be to always leave home with at least one diaper, the changing pad, and some wipes in tow. Seriously, I think Ellie knows when I don't and therefore chooses to punish me for my lack of foresight.

Also of note are those occasions when I find myself forgetting just how smart Ellie can be. There are definitely trigger words in her vocabulary that will always provoke a strong reaction in my daughter. Words such as outside, snack, sleep, music, and milk are some examples. Simply put, if Bethany and I forget to spell those words and instead just speak it, we're basically duty bound to fulfill the expectation of said word regardless of whether we want to or not.

Of course, part of parenthood is discovering circumstances you aren't prepared for and figuring out how to avoid said situations in the future. If you require an example, look no further than an ordinary trip to the park for Ellie and I today.

I'll lead with the statement that today was an extremely frustrating day to spend at home with Ellie. Between her refusal to take an adequate nap and her total inability to listen (those two are probably connected somehow), I was feeling pretty beat down by this afternoon. Therefore, I thought maybe getting Ellie out of the house to do something fun might help her to calm down somewhat. Hence the trip to the park.

Now, the beauty of a super warm day like today is that the park is relatively vacant. The downside of a super warm day like today is that the park's playground equipment is approximately 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Don't believe me? Ask poor Ellie's thighs for proof. Seriously.

As soon as we arrived, Ellie, clad in a pair of denim shorts, excitedly began climbing until she finally stood atop her favorite slide, looking down at me far below. Then, she happily took a seat and began sliding. Seconds later, she came to a screeching halt and boy, do I mean screeching. The echoes of "Daddy, help!" quickly carried across the playground. Standing at the base of the tornado slide, I quickly reached up and lifted Ellie off the hot plastic before setting her down on the ground below.

Over the next few minutes, Ellie would clamber around the playground, testing out the swings and other various structures and slides only to find all were too hot for her liking. She even climbed back up to her tornado slide, gently touching the plastic with her hand, only to be disappointed by the still raging heat. It was at this moment that I had the perfect idea to solve this situation.

It just so happens that I had been keeping an old bath towel in the bottom of the stroller for the sole purpose of wiping rainwater off of slides to keep the seat of my daughter's pants dry on wet days. In my mind, I saw no reason why I couldn't use the same towel to protect my daughter's milky white legs from the hot summer sun's effects on the tornado slide. After coaxing Ellie to the top of the slide one final time, I laid the towel down and convinced her to sit on it before gently pulling the towel onto the incline before watching Ellie fly down it. Upon reaching the bottom, Ellie happily exclaimed, "Again!" My ingenuity and (less than quick) thinking had triumphed, allowing Ellie to slide to her little heart's content.

Now, despite things working out fine today, I did learn an important lesson. That lesson being that it's never too hot to dress one's child in long pants for a trip to the park. After all, no one wants their thighs to be well done after a trip down the slide. #DaddyWrite 

Sorry there's no pictures of Ellie today. Hopefully this image of chicken frying in a pair will suffice.