There is a park that is perfect for a toddler to play at near Mary's house (Louise's sister, and Ryan's mum). So we asked Ryan to come out and play with Evan again, which Evan loved! And Evan went down the slides, swang in the swings, and learned how to walk over this bridge (it was a bit slippery going down the other side) one morning when we all took a walk to this park. The other park outing so far was to Mudjimba Beach Park for Nana's birthday. He got to play at that park with his cousin Eva, and also got to chase around bush turkeys. After he got wet from the beach (see more below in the Beach section), he was wearing only a diaper and tennis shoes and he ran around after one turkey for quite awhile. It was like the turkey knew he couldn't catch him, but just kept at a short distance ahead of Evan to taunt him to keep running.
Eva's House
We have gone over to Evan's cousin Eva's house once so far, and of course he loved it because she got a new trampoline. The two of them bounced and bounced and bounced. It was a fairly muggy evening, and so Evan got quite hot and sweaty, but he had an absolute blast! We will definitely have to make a few more trips over there while we're here, although I don't look forward to having to pry him away from the trampoline again. You can imagine he put up quite a fight when it was time to go. Hopefully Emma won't be as fussy next time as well, but evenings are her "witching hour". Luckily, Nana did some squat bouncing with her and got her to sleep in her arms.
Nana helping calm Emma
Beach
We've been to the beach twice so far on our visit. The first time was for Nana's birthday. We had a little afternoon tea picnic at a park at Mudjimba Beach. You can't see the beach or ocean from this park, so at first Evan was just delighted to run around the playground. Then we decided to walk him over to the beach for his first time at the beach (at least in his memory, since I know he doesn't remember his true first time at the beach when we were here two years ago, and probably doesn't even remember his times at the beach in Hawaii). He was so excited when he saw the ocean...he kept pointing to it and telling us "it's the ocean mommy! it's the ocean daddy!".
Setting his sights on the ocean for the first time in his recent memory
And falling in love...
Click here for a video of Evan being super giddy about the ocean [Note that the wind makes the audio harder to hear, and I had just paused the video when he started doing a silly excited scream thing, but I turned it back on to catch the last half of it. He was so excited he just couldn't contain himself!]
Then he got his feet wet...and then a bit of his shorts...and then when he started losing his balance due to the waves coming in (albeit he was still in very shallow water) he fell a bit and got even wetter. Then when it was time to go, he was not happy to leave. Granted, we hadn't stayed long, but we hadn't anticipated him getting so wet either. While we were at the beach with Evan, Nana watched Emma with her friends at the park, and managed to get Emma to fall asleep in her arms for a little Nana nap. Nana is getting quite good at helping calm little Emma. :)
After playing in the ocean...and getting a little wet and sandy
Emma was very cozy in Nana's arms.
Our second time to the beach was a planned beach outing (to North Shore beach), and we brought Emma this time too. So it was her first beach experience ever, including her first time getting her feet wet in the ocean. Unfortunately, when I dipped her feet in, the water came up higher than I had planned and got her bottom and back a little wet too. She didn't mind it at first, but when her back got wet, she wasn't as happy about the experience. :(
Emma's first time to the beach
Getting her feet wet (left) and then accidentally having gotten her bottom and back wet (right)
Evan was very excited to be back at the beach to play in the ocean. He was so giddy again and got right into the water. And this time he had no problem getting really wet. For one, he was wearing his togs (aka swimming clothes) and so we let him get wet, and he even let the waves knock him down and go over his head sometimes (when he was sitting...we didn't let him go out too far), which was a first for him letting water go over his head! (He started letting John put his head under water in the swimming pool the next day) Luckily Evan did not put up a fight (at all!) this time when it was time to leave. I think he was pretty much worn out since he played so hard for so long in the waves.
Our whole gang (minus Sarah who took the photo) after a fun time at the beach
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