A Walk in the Park with my Granddaughter

Time for change

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Sat Nov-21-09 02:46 PM
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A Walk in the Park with my Granddaughter

A few months ago I asked my two and a half year old granddaughter, Hannah, if she’d like to go for a walk in the park with me. She did, and we proceeded to walk to the park entrance at the end of the block on which we live, about two tenths of a mile away from our house.

Hannah seemed quite excited about our outing, and about half way to the park entrance it occurred to me that she was probably expecting a park with rides. Uh oh! The “park” we were walking to was just a woods with lots of trees and some walking trails.

So I thought I’d better break the bad news to her as soon as possible. I said, “Hannah… uh, the park we’re going to just has trees in it, but it doesn’t have rides… ok?” That didn’t seem to phase her, so we continued walking.

So we walked down to the end of the block and into the park, and I said:

Me: Here we are Hannah, we’re in the park!

Hannah: This isn’t a park, pa.

Me: Yes Hannah, it is a park… It just doesn’t have rides in it. It’s a tree park.

Hannah: This isn’t a park, pa.

Me: Yes it is Hannah. It’s a tree park.

Hannah: No, this isn’t a park, pa.

Me: Yes it is Hannah.

Hannah: No, it’s not, pa.

Me: Ok Hannah, what would you like to do? Do you want to go home?

Hannah: No, I wanna go to the park.

Me: But there are no rides in this park.

Hannah: I wanna go to the park.

Me: (exasperated) Ok, Hannah, which way would you like to go?

Hannah: Ummmm…….. THIS way (pointing her finger).

So, we began walking through the park in the direction that Hannah pointed. Every few yards she would stop and gather some leaves or stones, or whatever, and ask me to hold them for her. She seemed quite contented. But I was worried about her being very disappointed when she realized that there were not going to be any rides for her that day. So every so often I would ask her if she was ready to go home. And each time I asked she would say “No, I wanna go to the park”. So we kept on walking. After maybe a half a mile or so, Hannah said in her sing-song voice:

Hannah: We’re almost there.

Me: Where?

Hannah: The park.

Me: But Hannah, I tried to explain to you. We’re already in the park. Don’t you understand? We’re in a tree park. There are NOT any rides in this park. We’re already in the park…… Would you like to go home?

Hannah: No pa, I wanna go to the park.

Of course the above noted conversation isn’t exact. But it’s the best that I can remember it. And I don’t remember how many times it was repeated.

Anyhow, not too long after Hannah said “We’re almost there”, we walked up a sloping path, and when we got to the top I was very surprised, to say the least, to see a park and playground with a merry-go-round, a train, swings, slides, and playhouses, etc. We had walked maybe as long as a mile by then.

It was a park that my wife and I had previously taken Hannah to. But we had driven there by car by a totally different route – obviously. I had no idea that it was connected to the woods at the end of our street. And there seemed to be no way that Hannah could have known, as nobody in our family had ever been that way before. And certainly at two and a half years old nobody could have explained the concept of the connection between our woods and the park in a way that she could have understood, even if her parents or my wife had known about it – and they hadn’t.

So, I had to eat some crow:

Me: Uh, here we are Hannah. We’re at the park.

Hannah: Yay!

Me: Uh...... Hannah…. Ummm …. I don’t have any money with me to buy a ticket for the merry-go-round or the train. I’m very sorry, honey. I… um… didn’t know… uh … that the rides would be here.

Hannah: That’s ok, pa.

Me: Would you like to go on the swings?

Hannah: Yes!

So, we went to the swings, and Hannah had a great time on the swings and the slides. After maybe an hour, by which time it was starting to get dark, we began to walk back home, through the woods. Hannah heard some noises and got scared and said, “Pick me up. I’m scared”. So I walked with her in my arms for a while, until it was too hard for me, and then I asked her if I could put her down and she could walk for a while. She was no longer scared by that time, so it was fine.

I was truly amazed that Hannah seemed to know about the park that we walked to. It seemed like a miracle to me. I had no explanation for how she seemed to know exactly where we were going. Did she just get lucky? I tried asking her about it since our walk, but how can you talk about something like that with a two year old?

Then one day I recounted the story to a neighbor girl, who told to me that she and her brother had taken Hannah to the park via the woods we had traveled through, prior to my taking Hannah there… I mean Hannah leading me there.

So Hannah isn’t telepathic after all. But still, I think that’s a pretty impressive memory for a two and a half year-old.

Hannah, holding hands with two friends – shortly before her 3rd birthday.