Park and Parade

This weekend we made the most of the cooler weather and took the kids to the park. We were there bright and early to share our bread, tortillas, and left over, stale bagels with the ducks. Jake and Lilly used to have trouble distinguishing the difference between their snacks and the “duck food.” In the past, they’ve always fed the ducks a couple of pieces of crumbly bread, then snuck a bite for themselves. “Two for the ducks, one for me,” was the way it used to go. But not today! For some reason, they both seemed to understand that this food was for the ducks only. Either they are growing up and learning that not all food is classified as a snack, or the bread was so stale that they figured it might be safer to let the ducks gobble it up.

One of Lilly’s first words was “duck,” probably because she spent so many mornings watching the family of five mallards through the playroom window. She has slowly become obsessed with them. Now she classifies anything with wings and a beak as a duck. The black birds we constantly spot in the front yard, the buzzards we occasionally see circling high above, and the egrets that can be found by the pond in our neighborhood are all referred to as “duck.” Last week, Lilly pointed to picture of a flamingo and said, “Duck!” Now usually, I correct her by saying, “Flamingo, Lilly. This is a flamingo; not a duck.” But when she went on to tell me that the penguin we were looking at was also a duck, I realized that this creature, which met the criteria of beak and wings, clearly fell into the “duck category.” In this situation, I just nodded and said, “Uh-huh, Sweetie. Good job!” rather than argue with my oh-so-intelligent toddler. So when the ducks gathered near to her and Jake, ready to consume our coveted bread, she did not hold back as she yelled repeatedly, “Duck! Duck! Duck!”

Neither of my children have an ounce of fear of these webbed-footed creatures, as evidenced by Jake attempting to stick his finger inside one duck’s bill. Terrified that we would leave the park with a fingerless child, I quickly ushered the two kids towards the swings and the slide, two activities I deemed much safer than feeding these ravenous animals! Maybe I overreacted, or maybe it was just my own childhood experience, in which a large seemingly gentle goose took a good nip at my finger, that was coming back to haunt me. In any case, Cody did not hold back his opinions of my paranoid behavior.

The kids love to go down the slide, and I have decided that it is much more strenuous for Momma and Daddy than for Jake and Lilly. I have never been more aware of how out of shape I am than when my 14 month olds are dragging me by the hand, eyes eagerly insisting that we do it one more time.

When Lilly started chasing squirrels, wanting to climb up the tree after them, it was time to go. We packed up the kids and made our way over to Old Katy to scout out a spot to watch the Katy Rice Harvest Festival Parade. Decked out with our bright red wagon, we found a spot on the corner of Second and Avenue A. Jake and Lilly loved watching the police motorcycles with their flashing lights, all the decorated cars, the army trucks, the fire engine with the extremely loud horn, the horses whose riders held patriotic flags, the dogs in costumes, the junior high and high school cheerleaders and the band that slowly marched by us as we sat on the curb. Jake was fascinated by the plastic football we caught as one truckload drove by. When Lilly reached out to touch the Eagle mascot, I cringed, waiting for her to call this feathery creature a duck. But clearly she was too in awe to say a word. She just silently stuck out her hand to touch this larger than life bird.

With everything, it seems, all good things must come to an end. Just like Lilly’s “squirrel chasing” was our cue to leave the park, we knew it was time to head home when she had one of her famous kicking, screaming tantrums when we would not let her run into the road to pluck a balloon off one of the floats driving by us. In her defense, all she really wanted was a balloon!