Out of the Archive

In the process of organizing picture files devoted to Mabel over the past three years, I found that certain images were requiring me to display them over again. These are some of the most insistent.

Pretend Ice Cream

At the playground on Sunday afternoon Mabel was taking her ease at one point on an odd, low cable-anchored swing-contraption when she observed another child and that child's grandmother playing ice-cream store very nearby. Mabel became almost hypnotised, and happily observed the ice-cream game as long as it lasted.

Hopscotch

Late Sunday afternoon Mabel and I climbed the hill to the playground. Before anything else she wanted to demonstrate her current way of playing hopscotch..Mabel's hopscotch game has grown more ambitious since the last time she showed it to me. The new rules appeared to require more acrobatics.

When we took a cookie break under the arbor, a toddler came teetering up to stare. Mabel turned and asked the mother if her little child could have some cookie. The mother took a tiny piece for this barely-walking baby, and the baby was enthralled.

Bounce

Before we left the house on Sunday afternoon, Mabel hunted up her new favorite small pink ball to bring along.

She likes it the best because of the bounce. It has the best bounce.

Even after Mabel went down the slide head first several times with the ball under her stomach, it remained very bouncy.

Walking the Plank

Late Sunday afternoon Mabel and I decided in the middle of our indoor activities that while it was still bright light outside we should make a quick trip out to the playground.

Mabel found time for several different playground diversions, but the one on the suspended rope network seen here was what she called 'walking the plank' .

Sorting Marbles

My own good fortune this week was to spend a day with Mabel. She was full of conversation on numerous subjects and had at least fifty ideas for fun things we could do together. We pursued as many inspirations as we had time for. Granted, there are no pictures of the storybooks we read or nap-songs we sang, but I did salvage a few visual hints from some of the other preoccupations.