Sheep Guarding Llama

It’s Friday and it really came up fast with this being a short week.  Work was good and  was able to leave at a good time, after happy hour, to get home and take the family out for our third trip to the playground this week!  We are already making this into a routine and a good one.  It is making us much happier to be doing this when I get home from work.

Liesl continues to get braver and better at climbing in the playground, day by day.

Thursday.  I am still reading “Dragons of Spring Dawning” during my commutes.  That is a very long book.

After work today the girls were ready when I got home and we were straight off to the playground again.  They are loving that we are able to do this when I get home from work and Dominica and I are loving how well it works for making our evenings function better.  The extra exercise is great for she and I but is really good in that it wears the girls out making them much better for getting to sleep when we get back from the playground.  And it improves the “daddy walking in the door” situation which is often me being attacked by the girls who want to talk or jump all over me or whatever before I am even through the door and that does not work well as I am always trying to shift from work and commute modes into home mode, to use the restroom, get changed, etc.

When they know that we are going to the playground, they know that they need to get ready and that I need to get ready and they are much happier to let me do so.  Then they can tell me about their days while we walk. So much better.

Both girls are improving each day that we go to the playground.  Liesl is still scared climbing a lot of the stuff but she tries really hard and does more each day. It is really impressive how much she pushes herself to do something that she is afraid of.  She just makes herself do it.  Still no luck on trying the fireman’s pole, though.

It’s Friday and my last day with the family before their long vacation. I was up quite early this morning having gotten a full night of sleep since we went to bed so early. I managed to get into the office on the early side today, which was nice. Work was fine today.

I left just a little early, at about a quarter till six, but traffic was horrible near the office, probably because of Metro North being down southbound into the City. So I was delayed a bit but once I was off of the highway there was no traffic. Dominica’s parents arrived at the house around four thirty and they wanted to get to dinner before it got too late so the whole family packed up and went to our local pizza place without me but I made very good time getting home so I met them there long before they had their pizza. The girls were excited that I met them there. We got two large cheese pizzas and only ate one, so I am going to have a lot of pizza this week being home alone.

After pizza we went out for custard for dessert. Then it was back to the house and immediately off to get everyone to bed. We have to be up at three tomorrow morning, we need to get right to bed tonight. The girls are sleeping on the air mattress in our bedroom which always makes it difficult to get off to sleep as they keep each other, and us, up.

When I got home from work this evening we were out the door almost immediately to hoof it up the hill to go to the playground that we discovered over the weekend.  The girls were very excited to be getting to go back there.

The walk up the hill is pretty exhausting, but it is a good idea for us to do this every day.  Good exercise and it makes our evenings a lot more family oriented than if we stay in the house and it makes us less likely to eat.  Doing a walk like this when I get home is better than sitting around a table for food as far as getting family time in because we are all walking together and there is nothing to do except to spend time together and talk.

The girls had a great time on the playground this evening.  I can’t believe how well both of them do climbing up on everything.  Liesl is attempting to go up the big kid climbing ladder things on the outside of the playground unit.  She is still pretty scared to just climb them and needs me to stand with her but she is braver than she was over the weekend and is getting better at it.  She still wants me to stand with her though.

Liesl really wants to go down the fireman’s pole but is terrified of it and won’t try it.

Luciana thinks that it is great fun to pretend that the playground unit is a ship and that she is a pirate.  She runs all around being a pirate.

The walk up and back and time on the playground rapidly eats up our evening.  But it is a great way to spend the time.

Back to work but today is Tuesday and it is only a four day work week.  So the week will fly by.  I suspect that the office will be pretty empty and slow today as well.

And I was right, it was a slow day.  Got home at a decent time and we just relaxed tonight, nothing really of note.  We continued reading “The Magician’s Nephew” which is nearly finished now..