Adventures with Daddy

Kristin returned to work this week and I have a couple more weeks before the Fall semester begins for me. Thus, I'm spending a lot more time with Connor than I would normally. Today, instead of doing the same old things that Kristin would do with her (YMCA pool... yawn), I decided to take Connor on a little adventure. 

Recently, the little one has become fascinated with trains. She plays with her train set frequently and flips out every time she sees on in "real life." With this in mind, I took her on her first train ride: MARTA (It's smarta!). Our destination was Centennial Olympic Park so that Connor could play in the fountain. I wasn't sure how any of this was going to go when we set out.

We just missed the departing train and had to wait about 10 minutes for the next one to arrive. This gave Squirrel a good opportunity for people watching, which amounts to asking questions about every "boy" and "girl"—that is, every man and woman—that passes. "What dat girl doin', Daddy?" "Why dat boy walkin' like dat, Daddy?"

Once aboard our train, Connor refused to sit in my lap. She wanted to sit beside me in a seat to myself. (There goes my hunch that she would be afraid.) 

"Daddy, I sit all by myself, okay?"

When I told Kristin the night before about my plan, she suggested I take a stroller. I wish I would've heeded that advice. To my adult self, the walk from the Georgia Dome station to Centennial Park is extremely short. To a two-year-old, though, that's quite the walk. Thus, things took a little longer than I expected. Connor was a trooper about it.

Much to my surprise, when we entered the park, Connor wasn't remotely interested in the fountain. She wanted to hit the playground first. 

After a good 45 minutes of sliding, we went back to the fountain for lunch. Upon watching the kids playing in the water, she suddenly became more enthused about getting in. I suited her up and turned her loose. Instead of running for the fountain, she ran after something else instead (see below).

Once she was done with the birds, we turned out attention back to the fountain. She was somewhat afraid to run into the spraying jets, so I, dad of the century, picked her up and ran in, despite the fact that I didn't bring a swim suit for myself. 

She was so tired after the fountain that she just had to have some of my Diet Coke. 

And she promptly followed that up with a request for an ice cream cone. We shared one while watching the synchronized fountain show. Pretty nice end to a fun afternoon. The following two videos were taken during the wait for our train home and on the train itself. Note the very sleepy eyes.

All in all, it was a really fun daddy-daughter day. I've got her again all next week, so I'll have to find some other ways to top Kristin in the "fun parent" department. ;)