A few weeks ago I put up this post about us not being able to say the word "outside" without Ellie insisting on being taken out to play. We can no add to that list "out", "go" and sometimes "ready". As a sequel to that post, I recently took our camera out with us so I could show you all the things Ellie loves about our little great outdoors we have here.
Ellie has her own routine for playing outside, every time we go out it is almost always the same. We first head towards the slide. This isn't very far, but it takes us a long while to get there because on the way there are lots of small stairs that have to be surmounted, not to mention all the leaves that need to be cleaned off the sidewalk.
Ellie wishes she could pick up all the leaves on the sidewalk. It is so funny to see her have both hands full and then see another leaf she wants to pick up. She doesn't know what to do, should she drop the ones she has in order to get the new one? or leave the new one for the sake of the original ones? Usually she ends up taking the former option, but I love watching her visibly making this decision.
Sometimes she sees flowers along the way that she would like to pick. We try to limit ourselves to ones that seem like wildflowers or rogue flowers only.
Finally we get to the slide! Ellie climbs the ladder herself, positions herself at the top and goes down the slide.
Climbing up the ladder, always clutching one nature's treasures in her hands. If there are leaves on the ladder she stops to brush them off before continuing up. Bird poop on the ladder is a different matter, and requires constant vigilance to keep her from cleaning that off too.
At the top of the slide ready to go, still hanging on to that leaf.
Wheee! Ellie thinks the slide is fun. Mama likes this slide because it has high sides and comes to a gradual stop on the ground, it seems about as safe as slides can be.
After three or four turns on the slide it is time to move on. That is, once we locate our other favorite thing about the slide: near the slide is a tree that drops seed pods. They fit perfectly inside Ellie's hand and have dried seeds inside that rattle when shaken. Without fail, we leave the slide area with one of these in each hand, and usually make it back home with at least one. (she is holding two in the picture above)
Next it's time to ride the duck. Mama gets to ride either the dog or the pig. We usually leave this area pretty quickly because several retired people sit there and constantly want to hold Ellie. She can understand the Chinese for "Let me hold you."
After the duck we go look at the gold fish living in the fountain. Somehow Ellie learned to hold one of her seeds in the water, getting the fish to come to the surface and investigate possible food. Then she bats at the surface and they all go scurrying.
When Mama gets tired of keeping Ellie from sticking her feet in the water, we go to see the parakeet. Thank goodness for this parakeet. Otherwise I don't know how I'd get her away from playing in the dirty fish water. Next door to the parakeet lives Joey, the little beagle who barks at us if we get too close to his door. Sometimes his owner brings him out to play, but if not that's okay because we can just go over and see the doggie statue and bark at him in turn.
There are lots of animal statues in the garden, including...
...a lion-turtle. We growl at this one.
And finally, my own favorite part of going out to play in the garden:
Ellie has her own routine for playing outside, every time we go out it is almost always the same. We first head towards the slide. This isn't very far, but it takes us a long while to get there because on the way there are lots of small stairs that have to be surmounted, not to mention all the leaves that need to be cleaned off the sidewalk.
Ellie wishes she could pick up all the leaves on the sidewalk. It is so funny to see her have both hands full and then see another leaf she wants to pick up. She doesn't know what to do, should she drop the ones she has in order to get the new one? or leave the new one for the sake of the original ones? Usually she ends up taking the former option, but I love watching her visibly making this decision.
Sometimes she sees flowers along the way that she would like to pick. We try to limit ourselves to ones that seem like wildflowers or rogue flowers only.
Finally we get to the slide! Ellie climbs the ladder herself, positions herself at the top and goes down the slide.
Climbing up the ladder, always clutching one nature's treasures in her hands. If there are leaves on the ladder she stops to brush them off before continuing up. Bird poop on the ladder is a different matter, and requires constant vigilance to keep her from cleaning that off too.
At the top of the slide ready to go, still hanging on to that leaf.
Wheee! Ellie thinks the slide is fun. Mama likes this slide because it has high sides and comes to a gradual stop on the ground, it seems about as safe as slides can be.
After three or four turns on the slide it is time to move on. That is, once we locate our other favorite thing about the slide: near the slide is a tree that drops seed pods. They fit perfectly inside Ellie's hand and have dried seeds inside that rattle when shaken. Without fail, we leave the slide area with one of these in each hand, and usually make it back home with at least one. (she is holding two in the picture above)
Next it's time to ride the duck. Mama gets to ride either the dog or the pig. We usually leave this area pretty quickly because several retired people sit there and constantly want to hold Ellie. She can understand the Chinese for "Let me hold you."
After the duck we go look at the gold fish living in the fountain. Somehow Ellie learned to hold one of her seeds in the water, getting the fish to come to the surface and investigate possible food. Then she bats at the surface and they all go scurrying.
When Mama gets tired of keeping Ellie from sticking her feet in the water, we go to see the parakeet. Thank goodness for this parakeet. Otherwise I don't know how I'd get her away from playing in the dirty fish water. Next door to the parakeet lives Joey, the little beagle who barks at us if we get too close to his door. Sometimes his owner brings him out to play, but if not that's okay because we can just go over and see the doggie statue and bark at him in turn.
There are lots of animal statues in the garden, including...
...a lion-turtle. We growl at this one.
And finally, my own favorite part of going out to play in the garden:
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