She’s only a few days short of 16 months old and already going to school. On Spring Break at that!

Well, I only assume it’s spring break here since I’ve seen kids aimlessly wondering the neighborhood during school hours. So it’s that or kids are playing hooky at a very young age now-a-days. I’m thinking it’s the former.

Thursday brought us another nice day with warm temps and only a little clouds here and there. Seemed like a perfect opportunity to make another playground run in my Soft Star Shoes and eat more mulch play with Avery.

As I said before, can’t wait to get our girl some Soft Star Shoes of her own. I’d say she could use them, huh?

Don’t worry, I brought a pair of socks to put on her before running around in the mulch. When in her stroller, she’ll take them off while walking or running otherwise. Even when it 40 degrees outside, which I think she regretted doing after the fact.

This time, we didn’t go to the small playground in our neighborhood, but instead went to one a little farther at a nearby elementary school.

I had another good run in the Soft Star Shoes and so far have zero drop complaints. See what I did there? Drop, like the zero drop that they are? Too corny/dumb? Sorry, just part of being a dad, right?

Avery took off to explore right after I set her down. This girl wastes NO time!

First she ran up to a slide with wide eyes.

Not sure why her eyes were so wide, but I held her and let her go down the slide a few times before she was off to find something else. Monkey bars?

She thought better of it and wondered off again. And wondered and wondered….

Not much she can do as far as playing on the equipment goes, so I guess a bigger playground is only cool for me. I played on the monkey bars and parallel bars and worked in a few sets of dips and pull-ups just to make use myself. Meanwhile, Avery was taste testing a rock.

That’s not a face of something tasting good. I took it away expecting screamfest 2015 to begin, but instead she just…..

I don’t know what you call it, but it wasn’t crying and that’s good enough for me!

I brought her down a bigger slide a few times and we sat in the big kid swing together before finally getting ready to go back home. But first, I had to try my best at getting a pic of us together. I set the camera timer and hoped for the best.

Note the rock made a return, but it made for a fairly good picture. By good, I mean Avery actually looked and somewhat smiled at the camera. Not an easy task with a toddler!

Once home, Avery chugged the rest of Mommy’s milk all by herself and then I fed her some organic grass-fed beef with potatoes.

After a little bit of ball throwing, it was time for a nap.

As usual, the nap was short and Avery was ready to run rampant once more. Which she did. Luckily, Kelley made it home before the sun set and we had a nice family walk together.

We don’t get to walk together as much as before, so every time we do, we try to make the most of it and just enjoy each other’s company. It’s the little things, they all add up to something big. That’s my deep thoughts for the day.

My other thoughts are on how exciting it will be when Avery can climb playground equipment herself and doesn’t need us to carry her up and down everything. Or maybe it will be scary….ummmm, sad…I’m not sure. Both?

Anyway, happy Friday! Here’s another pun before I go.

When it comes to kissing flowers, tulips are better than one.

Do you bring your toddler who can’t use playground equipment to the playground? Any ideas of what else to do besides follow them around and carry them on the equipment yourself?