Listening Ears at Coffee Pot Park

The weather is starting to cool off, at least for us thus we ceased the opportunity to be outdoors. We are still passionately curious about our local parks and we are continuing on our quest even though my original goal had expired. On this cooler early October evening we headed to Coffee Pot Park.

Lydia loves a good park mostly for the climbing and partly to meet new friends and play. As soon as we unlatched them from the car seats Lydia sprinted to the playground and meet Peyton, a little girl just slightly older than her to play with. The playground has a sand foundation which is not my favorite because no matter what there will be a gallon of sand in their shoes and all over their hands.

Vivian was much more adventurous then our last park trip with her. She has no fear and several times would run over suspension bridges right to the very edge, luckily Eliot is pretty tall. The playground is designated a 5-12 space so it wasn't really designed for either of my girls but that didn't stop them.


Lydia hasn't liked a swing since she was about 9 months old. Something about it makes her feel out of control and uncomfortable though her desire to do things that other kids are doing always leads her to the swings. She started swinging face down on her belly which tends to work well for her. On the other hand, Vivian is swinging and loving it.
The park is located at the eastern end of 30th street. Next to a round about that takes you near the shoreline towards Snell Island, North Shore and Downtown. It is very shady and right on the water which gave us a great breeze and view. A small picnic area makes it a nice party park but definitely for older kids because it is very close to the road and there is no fence boundary.
After Peyton and her brother Silas left another little person came along named Jack. Jack was a little younger than Lydia but they played together, until the exhausted Lydia just became obsessed with little Jack. She followed him and tried to race up the stairs but Jack was a little too little handle Lydia's enthusiasm. I cracked a couple of jokes about older women and finally we had to head home because Lydia had practically imprinted (Twilight reference) on Jack.
In the car, I talk to her about putting on her listening ears. Her beautiful, perfect amazing listening ears that God had given just to her. She looked at me almost was genuine glee and wonder. In that moment, I saw the look in her eyes that she was hanging on my every word and that I, as her mom, and created a perfect parenting moment. She's 3 so there will be many days that those listening ears may not be turned quite up as loud as we need them, but from that day forward she was earnestly excited to put them on.