Eating dirt

For the past two months, Hope has had this unfortunate habit of landing face first in playground dirt/sand/gravel with her mouth wide open. Usually during some odd dismount of equipment.

The first time, she came over and said "Somethin's crunchy!". I tried to wipe it out but it was essentially a poor finger sweep. I thought it was just a one-off. Apparently it was the start of a "thing."

Since then, every single time we're at a playground, Hope spends a good part of it with a mouth full of gravel. She now prefaces this by making a beeline in my direction, saying nothing, but with her tongue sticking out as far as it can go. (Photo evidence below.) Really, words aren't necessary for her to tell me what's wrong anymore. I know what the problem is every time. Since it happens EVERY VISIT to ANY playground ANYWHERE.

A friend here in Waterloo, Julie, finds it unbelievably funny and weird. Both are true. I usually find it hard to clean her tongue since I'm laughing so hard.

I now have a system in place to deal with the gravel-tongue. I carry a good size water bottle and pour as much water on her face as she'll tolerate. Still a bit crunchy in there but good enough to head back to the playground and fill her mouth with sand again.