Weekend Love: Tribeca Playdates

I think my kid will forever associate the word TRIbeca with ultra fun playdates. It's only our 3rd time to join a playdate here but she already feels so at home. On our way home last night, she told me: "Next week ulit ha, Mommy? Gusto ko every weekend tayo sana nandito" Parang park lang sa paningin nya.

I do hope our gracious host Tricia will never get tired of inviting us over.

****p.s. all captions below were by Maia.

Yipee, hurrayyyyy! Weeeeeeee!!!!

Up, up to the slide!

Playtime!

Mommy, you want to taste my sand juice?

Barefoot. And Free.

A friend reacted to the caption I used on one of the Instagram photos I posted last night for this photo:

Oh to be a kid have this kind of freedom, no?

Tibs told me that prior to me taking this photo, the little miss was already swimming in the sandbox like there's no tomorrow. She's probably imagining she's in a beach.

I actually am the type who doesn't really fear seeing my kid get dirty. I played with dirt as a kid and I think that is one of the best part of my childhood. I had fond memories of serving mudcakes to friends while playing bahay-bahayan.

As my little girl is now officially a kid, I would hope she gets to do this more and more often. So indeed, I look forward to more and more playdate weekends. Because really, hearing kids laugh heartily is one of the most beautiful sound in the world. It sort of freezes my worries for a moment and transports me into bliss world (even if just temporary).

Maia Travels: Rizal Park Tour Part III

The Children's Playground (finally, the last of my 3 part post)

Of all the places we visited in the Rizal Park compound it was in this place that the kids had so much fun. Well, I can't really blame them. It's a playground. And kids live to play. While we were in the Planetarium, they were already bugging me nonstop about it. That's why I'm still very thankful that they gave full attention to the film showing because I could clearly see then how excited they were to go to the children's playground.

We initially (Gogol's Yaya and I) planned to just walk back to the playground from the Planetarium but by 3pm, I was almost out of energy we decided to take the jeepney instead. It wasn't a long ride (just about 5 minutes from the Planetarium) but it was enough for us to regroup and recharge. By the time we got to the playground, the kid's energy were overflowing they just ran and ran and ran around like there's no tomorrow. The place was already filled with kids and adults that late afternoon but it was just large enough to still give plenty of running space for hyper kids like Maia and Gogol. It also had plenty of shaded areas which was a big welcome for us since it was very humid that day. Oh, the gift of trees indeed!

Apart from the wide open spaces, slides, and colorful hiding places another upside is the cheap entrance fee which was only for P10/person. That probably explains why even on a weekday, the park is filled with people. The downside to that is, the park maintenance couldn't police everyone and kids (and maybe even adults) would probably end up urinating on the ground or one of the pretty structures (which provides them obscurity from the other park goers). Most of the structures reek of pee and that isn't a good smell at all. It didn't bother the kids at all though so we just made sure they changed to clean clothes and their hands properly washed after they finished playing. Some of the structures that were not frequented by kids also became perfect hideaways for adults looking for privacy. On one of the turtle structures that Maia liked, there were two adults that were to me too intimate for a kid and I felt they didn't respect the presence of the kid at all. They didn't budge when to me, the park was built for kids so they should give way to those who wish to use that structure for it's real and true purpose.

Just to give you an overview of the park, here are a couple of shots I took using my phone camera: