Yay park!

Emma & I decided to go to the park this morning before it got really hot. (In hindsight, we should have gone at 6am if we wanted to beat the heat, but it seemed like 9am should have been early enough to still be cool. Wrong.) I told Emma that we would go to the park as soon as I took a shower.

I heard her the whole time I was in the shower: "Yay, park! Yay, swide! Yay, swing!"
The whole mile-long drive up to the neighborhood park: "Yay, park! "
The whole time we were walking up to the playground: "Yay, swide! Yay, swing!"
She was so excited. I put her on the slide and let her come down once.
"All done." I shrugged my shoulders and took her over to the swings. I asked her which swing she wanted to sit in.
"Dat one."
"This one?"
"No, dat one."
"This one?"
"No, dat one."
"This one?"
"No."
I said, "Honey, there are only 4 swings to pick from, and you don't want any of them." Then she pointed towards the playground again. Once she figured out that she could walk around by herself on the equipment, she was in heaven. They have a little hill in the middle of one of the play areas, and she went back & forth over it for a good 5 minutes. That's what she's doing here:

After about 20 minutes, it was already so sticky and hot that I decided it was time to head home. Once Emma realized we were headed back to the car, she threw a fit.
"Swing! Swing! Swing!"
You just can't win with a fickle toddler, I guess!

Yesterday, Emma got to do some coloring. She had a ball making pretty pictures and saying the names of the colors. She even got a few of them right! She made a picture for Daddy, and then she refused to let him have it when she was done. Changing her mind seems to be a major theme lately. I suppose independence is what being a toddler is all about, isn't it? Oh boy.