Friday evening at the park

The iBaby is feeling much better.  Went to Sarah's this morning at about 10, and I picked him up at 4:30 as usual.  His appetite is coming back, too.  Of course, dinner involved chicken, but last night he felt so bad he wouldn't even touch that, so tonight was a definite improvement.  After dinner, Dave decided to mow the lawn - it was long.  Not whip-out-a-bushhog-bad, but definitely looking shaggy.  I decided that since Ian was feeling good and the weather was PERFECT (75, low humidity, windy, sunny) that we'd go to the park.

We didn't go to Peter Pan Park - I thought it would probably be crowded with every other person with small children.  Instead, we went to a little park by our church.  Swings, a slide, a merry-go-round, and see-saws.  Simple, but it had what we needed.  First we did some swinging.

I shot this video. Yeah, I won't win awards for my camera work. :)  But who cares - he's adorable.

 And then we tried the slide.  He's never been on a slide before.  I put him on it about half way up (it was a tall slide) and held him while he slid down.  That wasn't fun - he thought it was scary.  So we tried it again, only this time from the top with Mommy holding him.  That was good - he was clinging to me at the top and laughing when we got to the bottom.  All I could think was how cool is it that he needs me to slide with him - I know it won't be long before we go to a playground and he's running all over by himself.

We also checked out the merry-go-round.  He thought that was pretty cool - I held him on my lap and used 1 foot to push us.  I think he's ready for the gravitron. :)

Finally, we swung on the "big kid" swings with him in my arms.  The sun was setting, it was windy but in a good way, and Ian just laid his head on my shoulder and put his arms around my neck.  We probably did that for 10 minutes.  It literally brought tears to my eyes.  I'm so NOT a crier, but it was just such a sweet moment.  All I could think about was how lucky I am to have this wonderful little person in my life.  What an awesome night.  We finished by running by DQ and picking up a shake for Dave, who was hard at work taming the lawn.

Finally, a note about the royal wedding.  Oh yeah, I watched it.  Not live, but it's been replaying all day, so I think I've seen the whole thing through bits and pieces.  And I've seen so many comments on FB about how sick people are of it, how we should be focusing on the tornado victims and not a silly wedding, we have our priorities wrong, Americans are worshipping disgusting displays of wealth, etc.  Here is my take:  I watched it.  I enjoyed watching it.  I enjoyed seeing the dresses, how happy everyone looked, I was interested in the ceremony.  And you know what?  It brightened my day.  Did it make me forget the damage in a town that I love or the friends that have suffered because of the tornado?  No, not for a second.  Would I have been incredibly disappointed if this wedding wasn't full of fancy dresses and outlandish hats and men in tuxedos?  Frankly, yes.  I like believing in the fairy tale.  I want to believe that people can marry for love and not obligation and that marriage can be taken seriously.  And it was damned happier than listening to one more report about wars, rising gas prices, politics, or disasters.  Sorry if that makes me shallow, but I like believing in fairy tales.  There's plenty of time to dwell on everything that's wrong in the world, can't we take a day to think about what's right with it?