The park next to our apartment building is under construction. While it is still far from finished, it is built up enough that we can use it for mini-adventures on days when the construction crews are not working. Today was a pseudo-holiday and the weather was gray and rainy, so Peatuk and I decided to have our little mini-date in the park.
We left a fed and drowsy Jojo upstairs with her father and went down to play in the park.
Peatuk found a “sandpit.” To that boy, any pile of sand is a sandpit and, to be honest, these recently dumped out piles of building sand are probably cleaner than most of the sandpits in parks these days, so I let him bust out his sand toys and play in his little sand kingdom. This kiddo loves sand. He is a tactile boy that can seriously spend an entire day digging, building, and creating in a sandpit. It works out great for me because most other parents don’t let their kids in sandpits, so I am able to keep Peatuk contained and happy for an extended period of time.
First, he played with his sand truck. This is seriously two pieces of wood that are nailed together and four plastic wheels. It is impossible to break, and it doesn’t matter if it gets dirty- in other words, the perfect toy for a 3-year old. He drove the truck home. Then he drove it to the park. Here and there and everywhere. We watched a few milkwood beetles (Peatuk calls them little Gastons, from Ben and Holly’s Little Kingdom) crawling around. Usually Peatuk likes to play with them. Today, he buried a couple of them in the sand. I guess we can’t win all battles when it comes to being cute and compassionate.
After awhile, Peatuk started making little sculptures with his sand molds. He gently scooped in the wet sand and explained every step as he “tap tap tap”ed the sand and then “1-2-3” tipped it. “A tortoise! A sea horse!” he exclaimed, his eyes shining with bright, young pride.
“I don’t eat sea horses,” he explained to me, “They are yucky.”
Okay, my love, okay. Don’t eat the yucky sea horses.
While we were engrossed in the sandpit, a man and his son, about Peatuk’s age came to the park. The kid zoomed around the freshly paved track, his father chasing after him, and every time he approached us he flashed a huge grin towards me and Peatuk. Almost stopping to play but deciding against it every time.
“He has a bicycle and I have a scooter,” Peatuk told me, “His name is boshik kan bali.”
“Are you sure that’s his name?”
“Yes, he is my best friend.”
“Did you ask him his name?”
“No.” Peatuk walked up to his bright green scooter and whispered, “What’s your name?” Then he came back to me and reported, “His name is boshik kan bali,” with the utmost confidence.
Silly me, I had thought he was talking about the boy.
Eventually, Peatuk managed to pull himself away from the sandpit to zoom around the track on his scooter. We caught a few pokemon and played a rousing round of “Peatuk is a train catching mama.” I even got a slight jog in!
Peatuk found a pinecone and we used plantnet to identify it (If you don’t know what plantnet is, check it out. It is maybe the coolest app ever). Peatuk kept the pinecone in his pocket to show daddy.
Then we went inside and had pizza for lunch and now the excited little boy that is my son is struggling (like always) to fall asleep.
It is the little things- the moments that happen between the fighting and firsts- that make me happiest being a mom.
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