Playground Rescues

Jill, Peter, and I went to an indoor playground today with some friends. It's been brutally cold in recent weeks. When we left the house this morning it was 33 degrees and Jill said, "Wow! It's warm!"

Jill and Peter had a great time playing. Jill climbed into a big netted maze with ladders and slides, got stuck, and called for me to rescue her. Feeling larger than the average preschooler, I kicked off my shoes and climbed into the maze. We worked our way through it and slid down the slide together.

Peter spent most of his time engrossed in a Thomas the Train table but at one point I looked around for him and heard him cry, "Mumma!" In the blink of an eye he had climbed the ladder into the maze and was stuck too! He was thrilled to ride down the tube slide with me on the way out, but I can't believe I have such a fearless climber on my hands.

When it was time to leave, Jill threw a fit. She ran away from me, and eventually, knowing it was going to come down to hand-to-hand combat, I put Peter in the car (friends were watching him) and went back for her.

When I walked in the room, I saw Jill coming down the slide from a bouncy house. Our eyes locked and we both knew I had to get to her before she climbed back in the house. The race was on. I ran across the room, hurdled the Thomas table, and grabbed her by the ankle before she disappeared into the bouncy house.

She sobbed as I carried her back to the car. I said, "You need to leave nicely with me, so I know I can bring you and Peter back another day." Jill said, "But I don't want to come back another day. I want to stay!" She had me beat there so I changed tactics. I said, "I know. It's hard to leave when you are having so much fun. What was your favorite part?" Jill said through tears, "Riding down the slide with you." At a time when I could have been really annoyed at her misbehavior, she melted me. What a sweetheart. And after all the excitement Peter, the love, was asleep in his carseat in about a minute.