More Toddlerness

I am really, really enjoying watching Miss M's personality develop. She is just such a great kid. Not a perfect kid, by any means, but a great one. T and the girls met me tonight after work at a local park near my office. I fed the baby for a bit and T ran around with Miss M. After a while it was time to go, but Miss M took off across the park, straying much further from us than normal. I finally realized that she had spotted a balloon. After I caught her and managed to pry the balloon away from her, I had to physically carry her back to the stroller. She didn't want to give the balloon up, and she didn't want to get in the stroller. Tears ensued. Just before we left the park, a little boy scampered after the balloon that I had made Miss M leave. It turned out that he'd been in a time-out when she stole the balloon. We chatted on the way home about how sad he would have been if we'd taken his balloon, and about the importance of sharing, and about the pink balloon she'd had two weeks ago that popped. Ultimately, she asked for another balloon, and became quite persistent about it as we walked. Before I knew it, T had found a balloon in his bag, blown it up, and gave it to her. She was thrilled. A while later, while walking through a different park, we came across a little boy who was sobbing. His mother (the bitch!) had left him by himself in the park, while she went to get her takeout at her apartment that was about 5 buildings down from the park! The child could not have been more that 3. I couldn't figure out where his parents had gone, and I was walking next to him for quite a ways. A small crowd was starting to gather, as T and I tried to figure out where his family was. He walked out of the park and toward the street, which made me really worried, so I followed him. Finally, I spotted his mother, who began to yell for him, all the while paying the sushi delivery guy. Who leaves their toddler in the park alone so they can collect their takeout from the driver?! But anyway, it caused Miss M and I to have this exchange: Miss M: He's sad. The little boy is sad. Me: Yes, he is. Miss M: We should give him a balloon. How can you not just love that? By the way, there are no paragraphs in my recent posts because my laptop died and I'm using the iPad. Blogger seems to ignore my paragraphs on the iPad, and I can't figure out how to fix it.