Pebbles in the Park

Today was one of those days I was kind of dreading, to tell you the truth. Jason had a work dinner tonight and wouldn't be home until after Emerson went to bed. Mondays are always a little more difficult to me anyway, just because we always have such wonderful weekends with Daddy all to ourselves, and most Mondays I spend really missing his presence. So today I thought the best thing I could do, both for Emerson and for me, would be to get out of the house and go to a park. We ended up at the little downtown Bixby park. I've got to say it was the most fun I've had in a long time. Sister loves to climb, so we went up & down, up & down the playground equipment. She's a little hesitant to slide by herself, so we'd come right back down and start again. Finally we ended up in the pea gravel at the base of the big slide. I was hurting pretty badly from my near-constant Braxton Hicks contractions (please, Lord, let him stay in a few more weeks), so I just sat right down where we were. We picked up the gravel, let it fall through our fingers, and I sat and watched her experience so many new textures, sounds, smells, and (unfortunately) tastes. I don't think she swallowed any... We piled it up on our pants, we put it in our pockets, we dug until we hit dirt, and we laughed and laughed. I've decided pea gravel is good for the soul. So is an 18-month-old little girl named Emerson.