After-school specials

In lieu of daily visits to the nearby Starbucks after picking Kitten up from class the past few days (both selfish in terms of not wanting to fend off overly-attractive caffeinated sweet drinks, and selfish in terms of Wednesday being comic book day, which is what’s supposed to trigger the Frappacino-fest), we’ve been doing Fun Stuff after school, Daddy & Kitten.

Monday it was a walk around the block. She loves taking walks, and it’s something we don’t do enough. For a long time, it was Tricycle Walks, but then she graduated to Scooter Walks, which are both more grown-up and require getting all dudded up in (more) safety gear.

For Monday, though, it was a Tricycle Walk. She wanted to see if the tricycle still fit. It did, but I saw I could probably move the seat back a notch or two. Still, that didn’t keep us from taking it around the block. On the downhill side, she goes coasting away, wisely using her feet to brake before coming to intersections. Excellent. On the uphill side, though, she lags, needing cajoling to keep from “I’m taking a little rest now” every 30 seconds or so.

The way the house is situated, that pattern usually means a counter-clockwise orbit — lots of downhill to start with, then uphill along Monaco St. (a much riskier avenue to go downhill), then a final downhill from the top of the street to home. Woo-hoo!

Tried to adjust the seat. Couldn’t. Need to work on it.

Yesterday, having been foiled in an attempt to play at the playground at pre-school, she asked if we could play at the park near our house. Now, I am a Bad Daddy in that, when asked for activities outside my area of expectations, I tend to knee-jerk a No, even if it’s not that big a deal. I try to catch myself at it, though, and did yesterday.

So we drove by the park, and Katherine got out to play, and I got out my book and started reading.

Hah! “Playing” is an interactive activity, and even if Katherine is not actually asking me to climb on the bars with her, play monster and catch her, or push her on the swing, she still wants me to “Look at me!” every 45 seconds or so, which a relaxing read does not make. There were some kids there (with parents) when we arrived, but not for long, so it was mostly Daddy & Kitten Day at the park.

She’s definitely got primate in her evolutionary background, because she loves climbing — climbing up the equipment, climbing up high, climbing backwards up the slides … The only thing she can’t do — yet — is hanging-hand-over-hand types of equipment. But, boy, does she want to.

I read the same paragraph about a dozen times before Margie, coming home from work the other direction, stopped by the park to join us. We were there about five minutes when I got a call on my cell from Doyce who was relaying an urgent (if undefined) request for our shop vac. That meant going back home, which we did.

Good times. Today (with her pre-school teacher’s home visit, and heading for the airport) is going to be a bit more hectic, but, hopefully, also fun as well.