Today around noon at the oak-shaded playgrounds of Lake View Elementary School, Ulysses for the first time showed cognizance of the rungs of the jungle gym. One had curved rungs along a concave arc. He stood both feet on the first rung and looked towards the next, about the same height from the ground. He stepped off onto the ground and walked to the next rung, and slung his legs around it, looking to the next rung, a little higher up.

He spent some minutes contemplating the rungs and threading his body under and around them, sometimes stopping to crouch and play with the wood chips.

After he left the curvy-arc rungs, I thought of the straight-up-and-down ladder a few feet away. I've demonstrated going up and down these things now and then, but he never took notice, that I could tell. Now I climbed the ladder one time, wordlessly, just to see what would happen.

U's attention went straight to it. He walked over and stepped both feet onto the lowest rung, maybe five inches from the ground. He reached his hands up to the highest rung he could reach, which was the one after the next. He began lifting his feet, clearly trying to go higher. He wasn't able to place a foot solidly on the higher rung, though. When he seemed to want help, I gave it, and with lots of support, he made it up to the top rung, the one where the next step up would mean climbing onto the jungle gym platform.

U reached his arms high in the air for a few seconds, then changed his body languange to descent. I helped him find his way down. He walked away, on to something else.

We've been going to playgrounds several times a week since April. Today was also the first time he sat himself down at the top of a slide and slid down in a sitting-up position. Up until now, he's always lowered himself belly-down, feet-first, to go down a slide. I've put him in the sitting position, and he's gone down that way, but often he would twist into the lying-down postion, or else just not want to go down at all. Today I put him in a sitting position once, when he was hesitating at the top of a tall slide. After that, he went down that way over and over, then onto a shorter slide and down it over and over, then onto a different jungle gym with a corkscrew slide and down it over and over and over.

Some acorns were strewn over the corkscrew slide jungle gym. He invented tossing them onto the corkscrew slide and hearing them clatter their way down.

The only conflict: I wouldn't let him chew on the acorns. After fishing the bits of one out of his mouth, we had some nursing. That restored peace and harmony. Then, more trips up the gym and down the slide. All at once, it seemed, it became difficult for him to get up the steps, and on that trip down the slide he fell into an odd position, was perched at the bottom of the slide for a second, and then half rolled, half fell off onto the soft earth and chips, uncontrolled. Nothing was bonked. He remained lying on the ground. Tears. I gathered him up and held him close. He brightened and pointed to the next jungle gym.

Time to go home. Helmets on, U snapped into the bike carrier seat, and we were off. Now he's deep in slumber.

Another first: Since the first time he encountered a slide in the James Reeb nursery, he's wanted to go straight up the slide. He gave up on that briefly, but then he saw bigger kids cruising on up under their own power. Since he saw that, he renewed his quest. Today was no different, until he looked at me and held out his hand purposefully. I took his hand and gave him the balance to go to the slide's top. He stepped up onto the platform. Then he lowered himself onto his tummy and slid down, feet first, cooing.