Typical day outside.

Anna Claire is loving this nice weather, like I'm sure everyone is, albeit windy. As soon as we pull in the driveway, she is calling to me, "Up, up, up." I unfasten the offending straps and remove the crying-out child from the contraption. Off she goes. "Stick! Stick!" So the search begins. Normally sticks and seashells imbedded in the driveway are the targets of the search, but today she discovered...pinecones.

Anna Claire had so much fun gathering large pinecones under the pine trees. She loved walking under them, with their branches being so low to the ground. It reminded me of that feeling from my own childhood, feeling so small, looking up and trying to touch the lowest branch, just out of my reach.

What blew me away, was her COUNTING. I'd say, "Now we have two pinecones," and she'd say, "THEE!" I'd say, "Three pinecones," and she'd say, "FOUR!" I went for it one more time to test my theory, "Now we have four pinecones, Anna Claire." Sure enough, "FI!" Seriously?

Oh, and then there's the slide. I am not ready to let her go down the slide by herself yet, nor do I want to climb up the webby, dirty steps to go down with her. After a good scrubbing, maybe. Anna Claire wants to go down regardless. So I lift her up as high as I can and hold onto her as she glides down. She loves it so much. We repeated this process more times than I can count. My back's a little sore from it, honestly.

Ready to go in, I do what I know works to get her in without tears, "Want to go inside and see Daddy? Let's see Daddy and get a snack." Off she runs toward the house. Works like a charm everytime.