We really enjoy having the park nearby. The playground is a little boring and sparse, even for a toddler, but we can still dig in the sandbox, run around and explore, and most of all, play hide-and-seek.

About hide-and-seek: Benji thinks of it as “sneaky, sneaky,” because that’s what we say when going to hide, or when hidden to give him a hint. He asks for it by saying and waving “bye-bye” to the intended hide-er, but hasn’t quite gotten the hang of it; he dashes after the person trying to hide and watches the hiding process, then gets all excited at finding the hide-er anyway. It’s very cute. When we started, we could stymie him by hiding behind a door, but now he’s learned to look carefully and almost never needs help to find someone.