Running like he's in track

The Bear and I went to the park this morning for about an hour and a half.

We had finished up writing numbers 5 to 7, reviewed numbers 1 to 4, and counted 1 to 100 out together. We did a couple hidden picture find pages, a couple pages where he had to identify patterns, and a couple pages using opposites (large/small, long/short, over/under). He relayed specific sounds to the letters I called out to him. He also wrote out his name twice. He has got a long name -- 9 letters just like his sister -- so I have to make sure he's able to write his name BEFORE he gets to school. I'm trying to do stuff like this with him each day. Doesn't take long either. He really enjoys doing all the workbooks. He likes the fact that I date and put a smiley face on each page when he's finished it.

Anyway, we headed to the park and he was more interested in running around the grass area than playing on the equipment. It was too cute. It really looked like he was in track and doing his workout. He ran counter-clockwise and stayed at the rim between the grass and sidewalk. He must have done the "lap" about 15 times! When we were loading into the car, he did say that his legs hurt. Imagine that?!

While we were at the park, we did see some annoying behavior. When we first got to the park, there was a mom with a 2.5 year old boy. A bit later two additional moms each with a little boy came and joined the first mom. Definitely a scheduled play date. When the 2 additional boys came, they immediately started to throw the playground wood chips at the play equipment and at each other. The moms didn't intervene as they were paying attention to each other. At one point, one of the boys was at the top of the equipment and was yelling "Mom!" He actually yelled about 8 times before she even looked his direction. Then there was the one boy who meandered the park with a corndog on a stick. Then there was the first boy who had been given french fries. He walked over to a cement bench, put the fries on the bench, laid on his tummy onto the bench, and then ate the french fries off the cement bench without using his hands. Of course, the 3 moms missed it when the corndog boy went into the grass area and yelled over to his buddy "I'm going to throw this ROCK at you! Ugh! It's stuck!" The reason the rock was stuck? Because it was a pile of doggy doo-doo! What really got to me is when I heard the boys say "I HATE you!" These kids were TWO! Ugh...

I know each parent has their own style and that's why I just let other adults parent their children. The only time I'll intervene is when another child has an adverse effect on my own children (i.e. is hitting them or throwing something at them). But MAN! I was shaking my head inside my mind the entire time as these moms were not even paying attention to these boys.

Thankfully, the Bear wasn't influenced by these boys and had a good ole time just running and watching his shadow. He's a great kid!