The Park

Every neighborhood has a community park and ours isn’t much different I would imagine. But it’s ours and that’s all that matters. It’s also really close. 2 houses  away close.

This closeness comes in handy when your child essentially grew up during COVID and is pretty much an indoor kid. All this to say that the park is a pretty big deal for our 4.5 year old -  and me too. It’s close and cheap and easy.

Tonight was a special trip because for reasons that are a completely different post altogether I was home much earlier today than other weekdays so the two of us were able to make an unexpected park run tonight.

And, I have to say it was memorable. And that’s why I am writing about it here. So I can remember. The weather was fantastic: “sweather weather” some would call it.

It  almost seems that although this park pales in comparison to some other parks but she still she gets overwhelmed with choice: Big slide? little slide?swings? So many choices.

We settled on the swings. She’s big enough this year that she can go on the “big girl swings” and tells me to “push her higher” 1 so I do, and we get into a rhythm. push and swing, push and swing…

At first, she was all chatty and we talked about how we could see the moon starting to wake up and that she wanted me to push her higher so that she could see it better. We talked about what it would be like to be on the moon or what the restaurant there would be like.

But after a while we both went silent and she was as happy to be pushed as I was happy to be doing the pushing and neither of us said a word and we just swung and and watched and listened and swung some more.

• We watched the tween girls with their extra large phones take over the top of the slide where they could talk and giggle in hushed tones
• We listened to the far away sound of a sporting event that would interrupt our silence with cheers of a win.
• We listened to the birds chirping
• We listened to the squeaking the swing made at every turn.
• We listened to the wind rustle the bull rushes behind us.
• We listened to the dirt bikes in the field behind and the burping of their exhaust as they rode the trails.
• We listened to the neighborhood dogs bark.
  

We just enjoyed the park. It was awesome.

Then we had to stop and go home because she had to poop. 2

Thank you for reading Tidy Husband. You should share this. Please.