A lovely day at the park by the beach

So today was a gorgeous day and I hit the parks.
We got ready and headed out at 9am to catch a bus down to the beach. I could have walked but I walked to the bus stop and then caught the bus and Joaquin had a lovely time chatting to the bus driver. It was a long double bus and the driver said he felt at times like a train driver as the bus was big like a train.
We met some mums from Zalia's mums group down at the park at the beach. They get there early and leave early. Then after 10am I met up with a dad and his two little ones, T and S, S is 4 like Joaquin and we have known her since she was 6 weeks old. Their dad looks after them and their mum works hard in an office, travels a lot and at times feels she is missing out on family time.
However Joaquin mentioned yesterday he saw a lot of dads in the park, I did see that too. Times are changing and men realise they also need to spend more time with their brood. Joaquin loves going to the park with his dad and spending daddy time. Zalia's face lights up when she sees her daddy when he comes home from work after not seeing him all day. They do not get to see him in the morning as he leaves early but he does spend time with them in the afternoon at 5.30pm when he gets home, he baths them, they have special milo and milk time while watching Blinky Bill and he reads to them and puts them to bed while I clean the kitchen.

I think I wore them out today at the park and beach. Zalia had a sleep after lunch at 12ish in the pram (well I breastfed her while we were having lunch fish and chips with my friend and his two little ones). She slept in the pram for about an hour and Joaquin and I walked back to the park to play while his other friends had to go home as little T had to have his sleep. Sometimes I wonder am I a bad mother staying out and Z sleeping in her pram instead of her cot. she has a short morning sleep and then a longer afternoon sleep in her cot usually and this works for us, she sleeps through the night with this set up so I do not want to change a thing yet.

Joaquin gets upset though when his friends leave, he wants to play with his friends, so he cried and was upset but I managed to convince him to get back on his scooter and go back to the park as we saw another mom walk that way with a pram and a little boy in the pram and an older boy on a scooter.
I talked to that mum at the park, her older son is 4 turning 5 in December starting school next year and the younger one nearly 2. She said she did not know what school her son will go to, they are renting an apartment in Rose Bay but want to buy a home in there northern beaches. Anyway Joaquin went up to this boy to see if he could play with him, the little boy was busy chasing another boy and said no I am already playing. There was another group of kids (2 boys and a girl) and Joaquin wanted to play with them as they searched for a lost toy in the bushes, in the end they found a small plastic toy and one boy with curly blond hair thew the toy down a hole and Joaquin got upset. I think that boy was a bully as later he called Joaquin a cry baby. In the end Joaquin played with another boy Lachlan he asked him his name, they played well even though that boy was turning 3 soon and he had a younger sister who was Zalia's age but seemed older.
Later I talked to that first mom, she was surprise Joaquin was 4 because she said when they are ready for school one thing they look for is if the child is socially ready i.e. does he ask people their names and she said she overheard Joaquin ask another boy his name. The thing is Joaquin has been doing this since he was 2. He used to ask stranger "Whats your name?".
After another episode with the bully blond boy and a stick we left the park, Joaquin played on his scooter along the beach and we went to a shop and I bought them banana smoothies and had a look around at the shops. I bought some dried banana chips (Joaquin saw them in the shop and he had tasted one that Lauchlan had given to him in the park). We also spoke to some other people who Joaquin saw they were drinking smoothies as they walked and he screamed out "I also just had a banana smoothie". He is very sociable when he wants to be, I do not know why he is always wanting to make friends, I think he has the knack of it.
Anyway we finally got home before 4pm and I did a bit around the home and found Joaquin asleep by himself on the lounge. I put Zalia down at 4.30 she slept till 6.30 and Jas came home at 5.30 and Joaquin was still sleeping. I really had a lovely day.
I made some snacks for Jas and Joaquin, before dinner, crackers with pate and some brie cheese, nuts and dried apricots. We had a nice time snacking on them before dinner, Jas made dinner left over corned beef, white sauce and yummy vegetables and pasta for them.