Parks and Second Cousins

A weekend with beautiful weather has been something of a rare event in Taipei recently. Last weekend was an exception that allowed Craig and Graham to spend plenty of time outdoors. Graham really likes this tube. He can sit there happily talking to himself for quite a while sometimes.

Craig prefers to keep moving.

When he's not sitting in the tube Graham can often be seen sliding.

On this particular Saturday morning, when they moved on to a park with longer concrete slides, Craig insisted on sliding with Graham.

Graham managed to get away to do some rocking by himself.

After lunch the boys went downstairs to go shopping with their parents. However, at first, they didn't get far. Craig's Mum's Evil Cousin Who Lives On The Ground Floor (it's probably best that he remain nameless) gave Craig a big bag of chips. (Once again, Craig never uses the word "fries" to describe deep-fried fingers of potato.)

Craig was good about sharing the chips but there was too much for one little boy to eat.

Some bubble making equipment was purchased while shopping. Yes, small plastic bottles filled with soapy water can be described as "equipment".

Mum tried to show Graham that he would make more bubbles if he actually blew through the circular doohicky.

He worked quite hard.

But he definitely wanted the wind to do the blowing for him.

Meanwhile, Craig was trying to think up new ways to play on a jungle gym slide. As we all do from time to time.

Some of Craig and Graham's chip-sharing second cousins also came to the park. The two girls in the centre of this photo live upstairs and downstairs from the boys' home.

There was plenty of silly messing about.

Which is what an afternoon at the park is for really.

All the little second cousins and neighbors then moved on to the park with the big concrete slide.

And more silly messing about followed. It was all good clean fun.

The next day Craig and Graham went with their parents to a park that they'd never been to before, in Neihu.

Craig first showed off his hanging skills.

Then he demonstrated his ability to flip with the aid of a horizontal bar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JWDuTrlphU&list=UURYg9qF7uHw-WK1DIDSlXwA&index=7&feature=plcp
He's pretty good at this now and can be a bit casual about it. Cool, huh?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVQVDJNcdMM&feature=share&list=UURYg9qF7uHw-WK1DIDSlXwA

Note: YouTube is having a technical problem and keeps embedding the wrong videos. I'm sure they'll fix it soon. Until then, the links to the appropriate videos are here instead. Alternatively, you could click here or here.