Learning how to play at the splash pad

22 months, 2 weeks old: 

• Continuing from last week’s refusal to wear clothes story:  July 29:  Good thing she did cooperate and wore pants and then later a shirt because it was her grandmother’s birthday dinner that night.  We were already contemplating that if she was still refusing by 3 p.m., we would have to re-coordinate dinner plans and bring the party to our house.  Good thing bb wore clothes and we were in the clear.
  It was the first time that bb visited her aunt and uncle’s place again to see her cousins again (after 3 months due to COVID in their family)
• August 1:  The refusals from bb have been continuing but we have found a way to resolve them.. enticing her with blueberries, crackers while in the car seat.  Phew!
• Was able to get a pack of free alphabet magnetic letters from Facebook marketplace for bb to play with a while ago (the week I was sick).  I finally opened them this week and bb was able to play with them.  I put the letters in order and sang the alphabet song to her.  She doesn’t really understand the concept yet.  She does recognize the “W” letter from my bungy jumping shirt consistently and did say the letters “Y”, “G”, “N”, “U”, “B” by herself though.  I was really impressed with that.  However, I think bb is too young to play with the letters yet and they will end up being another toy that’s discarded to the side for the time being.
• A fellow IG foodie and mom of a 2020 baby invited me to a playdate at David Hamilton Park.  It was my first time there at this park that’s only about 8 minutes away from us — so close!  I looked it up on Google Maps first and it looked impressive already with a modern playground and large splash pad.  I was definitely impressed when we arrived because there was plenty of parking, the play structures were modern and mostly wooden (so natural looking), and the splash pad consisted of low to medium to high types of water play.  It was so nicely designed!  Bb was not comfortable with playing with the others and also this was her first time at a splash pad.  She resorted to the big slide and swings.  The big slide was big enough for four kids to slide down on at a time.  It was really cool.  Near the end of the visit, I did a mommy booboo and let bb slide down without catching her in time.  Her face hit the wooden chips on the floor and she cried.  Poor baby.  I would definitely return to that park though.  It’s so fun and close to us too!
• With three weddings approaching and bb not having any nice dresses to wear, I had been scouring FB marketplace and found someone selling 40 pieces of 3T clothes for $25, four of which were dresses!  It was a steal.  I was browsing dresses and most toddler dresses sell for $10 to $15 so to get 40 pieces of clothes with four dresses in the lot for just $25 is amazing.  Honestly, it probably costs $25 alone for just a pajama set at Walmart.  I love thrifting and helping the planet this way. 🤗
• We visited Black Creek Pioneer Village over the weekend (to use up the free pass before it expires later this week).  It was a hot day again (much like it has been the past week).  We already knew that bb wouldn’t be able to get much out of the outing as she will probably learn more and understand when she’s over five years old.  However, it was still a nice experience to visit this gem in the city.  I remember visiting this spot in grade three or four for a day in the life of a pioneer in the classroom and how strict the teachers were.  The highlights were seeing the schoolhouse/classroom, watching the baker knead bread and bake it, and some animals (horses, goats, turkeys, chickens) for bb.  We actually didn’t even take bb out of the stroller for the entire visit.  We strolled around the grounds and took pictures here and there.  It was nice to visit and a visit again when bb is older will be another good family outing.
• After visiting the David Hamilton Park with no water shoes, I was on a mission to find some for bb.  The first time I tried to search for water shoes on FBM, I could barely find any.  I guess it’s now the end of season and when I tried to search again, there were so many available!  I was able to buy a pair of size 7 water shoes for bb for just $5 from someone just 10 minutes away from us.  Another amazing find.  The shoes fit her nicely too.  (Although she will not be able to wear them next summer most likely but we can keep these for the next child since they are black and gender neutral.)
• Right after picking up the water shoes, we went to the splash pad  at Richmond Green Park for bb to have some water fun.  (Love, love, love that I can plan my trips around the FBM purchases and outings — it’s so efficient.)
• There weren’t a lot of kids there at first and bb was hesitant about going near the water to play.  The sprinklers and pipes would turn on and off intermittently which made it a bit sporadic to play with the water but it actually is more fun for the kids this way.  We modelled for bb how to play with the water and soon she was more comfortable with it.  We brought the pail and shovel for sand with us and she used it to fill up with water.  There were so many kids there by noon time.  I’m so glad that bb had a great experience with the splash pad.
• Aug 3:  We made a trip to Markville Mall so that I could shop for new dresses for the upcoming weddings that we will be attending.  This was the first time that I knew about the big dressing rooms available at shops like Old Navy and H&M.  It helps so much when you have two adults and a toddler in a stroller.  Bb behaved well and enjoyed watching me try on dresses.  After the shopping trip, we had pho for lunch.  Bb ended up skipping her nap that day and going to bed early around 9 p.m.
• Speaking of which, bb has been waking up later and later these days.  Now her daily schedule is more like wake up at 9 a.m. (instead of the prior 8:15 a.m.), nap at 3 to 5ish (before it was 2 to 4 p.m.), and now bedtime is 9:30/10 p.m.  It’s not ideal because we don’t have private time after she goes to bed because it feels so late already.  We have to slowly somehow shift her schedule up.
• Bb also refused going into the car after the pho lunch.  We had been armed with blueberries and crackers but they didn’t work… It was so hot and muggy that day too.  No amount of coaxing or encouraging worked.  Bb at least was in her car seat but kneeling and facing the front.  Every time we tried to put her little butt in the seat, we struggled with her.  It probably took 20 minutes for her to finally get tired and we were able to put her in the seat and get home.  Struggles…
• Bb at bedtime this week shocked us by saying, “Mama, turn on the white noise” (“ma ma, hoi gor white noise”).  She said it so clearly too.  The shocking part was that she KNEW that the white noise part of the Nanit baby monitor was off and told us.  We didn’t even notice it when we walked into her bedroom.  It’s amazing the awareness that toddlers have…
• We had Chipotle for dinner and bb had so much fun picking up the black beans and putting them in my mouth and feeding me.  She giggled so much and it was so cute.