Every Friday night is Girl’s Night at the Trader house. CJ has a standing engagement with friends so Isabella and I take advantage of the time to have some mommy and daughter bonding. Don’t worry, we include Samson too, even though he’s not a girl.

All day I was itching to get outside because it was so beautiful (67 degrees at one point)! Of course, by the time I got home, it had started to cool off a bit, and the wind picked up. But that didn’t stop Munchkin and me from putting on some jackets and heading down the street to the park!

The last time I brought Isabella to this park was in the fall of 2010 (probably Octoberish). Back then, she was new to walking and hadn’t started climbing or anything so there wasn’t much she could do. This time she was all over the place! I pulled her out of the stroller and she took off! The first thing she did was run to a big circle cut out and crawl through it. She loves to go through things like tunnels and what not.

Then she ran over to the slides. She hasn’t quite figured out yet that slides are for going down, not up. She always tries to climb them.

She actually got about halfway up before sliding back down again. I tried to take her down on my lap and she wasn’t interested. Some day she’ll get it and love it!

I took her around to show her the stairs and she quickly climbed up them. At the top there were all kinds of things to do, like driving a fire truck…

…crawling through a tunnel….

…and climbing in a bubble!

We spent a good 45 minutes there running around, doing all kinds of things. They had a rocking horse and rocking turtle thing there too but she said “No!” every time I tried to coax her in to riding on one. She wasn’t much interested in the sea-saw either (although she likes to yell out, “See-SAW! See-SAW!”).

When it was finally time to head home, because it was getting cold, I let her walk instead of riding in the stroller. She half walked/half ran the whole way too (which was only 2 blocks, but still, that’s a lot when you have short little legs)!

She even pushed the stroller the last half a block home, though I couldn’t get a picture of that because she was leaning on it enough that I was afraid if I let go she’s face plant in to the sidewalk.

As soon as we got home it was time to make shamrock cookies! She helped me put them on the cookie sheet but didn’t quite get that they are still raw dough and need to bake before they can be eaten. She cried when I took the pan away and put it in the oven. But, she was plenty happy when they came out 10 minutes later and were ready to eat!!

She’s in bed asleep as I type this, which gives me some much needed downtime. I plan to head upstairs soon, curl up on the couch with Samson and catch up on my DVRed shows.

I really love our Friday nights and am very hesitant to give them up, which is why I don’t accept many invitations to go out. I would much rather be home with my angel, getting some quality time in.

Another girl’s night down, many, many  more to come!

 

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