Playground Evenings

Cooler New England temperatures and the fewer hours of daylight are inexorably taking away time from our post supper visits to the park. (I get out of work at 4 so we always have an early meal and then go to the park) Last night was a bit warmer than it has been the past few nights so I bundled everyone up and we went anyway. The kids are always so much better for having that last bit of the day to run around and burn off the wiggles. On the way, we met KC's park friend Andre and his mom. Holly pulls him in a wagon and lets KC ride with him. I feel a little guilty with the added weight she must be pulling with two kiddos in the back. On the other hand, the kids are having so much fun, I love watching them. And the amazing thing, is watching them communicate. KC is about 2 years older than Andre and Andre is slow to talk. Well at least his mom is concerned about his talking. In reality he signs something like 135 words, and speaks words in another language as well as english so I think it is going to work out fine. But the amazing thing is how well he and KC communicate with one another. While Andre may only sign something to me, or use a word or two to his mom, somehow this polyglot conversation takes place between the two kids while they ride in the wagon. Also, KC is used to trying to help his little sister learn language and he will patiently say a word to Andre and then ask him to repeat it. Something Andre seems more amenable to doing from KC than from an adult. We are going to get together once a week at an indoor play space once we totally have to give up our park evenings, but it won't be quite as much fun. There is a freedom to fields and less rigidly defined spaces that can't really be duplicated indoors.