Park Deja Vu

The weather was perfect yesterday. Clear, sunny skies.  Warm but not hot or humid yet.  The babies were happy and playful as always.  Jackson was energetic and "ready to go" by 8 a.m.  Those conditions created the ideal time to go to my favorite park.  This park is a bit of a drive, but it has everything.  It's like the Central Park of Charlotte.  Since it is a good 30 minutes away, I like to pack a lunch and spend a few hours there having a picnic, feeding the ducks, playing on the playground and train, walking on the trails, and completing the obstacle course.  I psyched myself up for what an amazing day we were going to have on the drive there.

Unfortunately, Jackson fell asleep on the way there, and he couldn't quite recover from his pissy mood after I awoke him.  He rode in the stroller and demanded I take him to the obstacle course.  Once he saw how many kids were playing, he said, "No! No! No!  I not like it.  It yucky.  I go see train."  I strolled to the train and he had the same reaction. "I don't want the train.  Take me to the swing.  The train's gross." We repeated this nonsense with the slide, swing, and ducks, until my optimistic outlook fizzled out.  Desperate to enjoy the nice weather, I attempted a picnic by the lake.  I spread out the blanket and laid the babies down.

Jackson ran away.  I started to follow him but he stopped about 100 feet away and sulked under a tree.  I calmly talked to him and remained positive about what a beautiful day it was and all the fun things we could do.  

After convincing Mr. Grumpy to join us, he decided to walk.  He then yelled at me, "Stop! Move the stroller off my head."  Sometimes you just can't win...

Determined to not let the tiny dictator ruin my mood, I took the babies out to play in our favorite section.  James had so much fun on the climbing wall.  Obviously he couldn't do much, but his face lit up and he laughed continuously while holding himself up to a standing position.

Our plump Amelia tackled the dummies.

And all three raced laid down towards the finish line, exhausted. 

I knew if I waited it out Jackson would join in on the fun.  An hour after we arrived, he was back to his silly, energetic self.  We spent another entire hour retracing our steps, but actually enjoyed everything the second time around.