Playing Ball

playingball
Originally uploaded by globalgirl246.

Later Thursday afternoon we walked to the Inwood Hills Park. At the first playground Desi tried unsuccessfully to get the kids to let him play with their ball. He did meet a little girl who turned out to be a hugger too. Finally! She actually approached him with her arms out stretched and he happily responded. They stood there for a bit and then mutually pulled away to look at each other again and then decided they must embrace one more time. He was so happy! It was him however, for the first time, to wrestle out of the hug and toddle away. We left the playground to walk more throughout the park. He loves walking, he'll say, "walk, walk..." and grin and wave his arms. As we passed the tennis courts, Des charmed a tennis player into giving him a ball and when we reached the second playground in the park he finally found a group of folks that would let him join in on there ball play. It helped that it was a dad with his kids. He stood with them and played for about 15minutes!! It was so nice!! I sat on a bench and watched with a little girl who talked prettily and blew bubbles. Des kept turning around to look at me with the biggest grin on his face! He was so happy to be playing with the kids. From there we wandered down to the water, stopping to collapse and roll around in the grass. He's so funny! He likes to collapse and just lay on his back for fun sometimes. He was doing this with the ballplayers just moments before, but in the dirt. At first we thought he just couldn't get his balance and then we all realized he simply wanted to lie in the dirt! hehehe... Anyway, we eventually reached the ducks and found a rock to sit on to feed them. Des would say, "ducks!" "quack!" then he'd use the power throw he'd just been polishing to toss them the bread, whacking me in the face a couple times with his gusto. After we'd been out for an hour and a half, I strapped him into his stroller, swabbed him down thoroughly with a wipe, and then gave him a beloved apple. Apples totally cheer him, he loves them!! It convinced him it was time to sit back and relax and head home. He held the apple tightly and munched, with happy little occasional bursts of, "apple!" and "byebye!"