Archive for September, 2006

I Didn’t Expect to See You Here


Sparkle Girl and Doobins have named each of the playgrounds in our world. The Rainbow Playground has no dominant color – a little red, a little green, a little yellow, a little blue.

At the Yellow Playround, what is not beige is yellow. It’s not as visually stimulating as the Rainbow Playground but it has significantly better drainage, an important factor to consider after a solid rain.

The other day, I offered Sparkle Girl and Doobins a choice of playgrounds. “The Yellow Playground,” said Doobins. That was fine with Sparkle Girl, so we were off. We parked and began walking past the tennis courts to the playground. I had Doobins’ hand in mine. Sparkle Girl had already run ahead.

“I don’t want to go to the Yellow Playground,” Doobins grumbled.

“Bud,” I said, “the only reason we’re going to the Yellow Playground is that you said that’s where you wanted to go.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot,” he said.

He smiled, dropped my hand and ran off to catch up with Sparkle Girl.

A few days later, it was playground time again. None of the playrounds on our play list had any appeal to me at the moment. As I tried to think of some way to add a little freshness to the experience, I remembered the playground at Triad Park. It had, hands down, the best playground I had seen in the area, and, ever since I had been there for a bird walk, I had wanted to take the kids there.

But it was at least 20 minutes away, which requires a certain momentum, and I hadn’t gotten around to it yet. On this particular day, we had plenty of time.

“In the car, kids,” I said.

On the drive out, Doobins said, “What color is it?”

As I do when I don’t grasp his point, I asked Sparkle Girl what he meant. She had no idea either. “What color is it? What color is it?” he kept asking.

It dawned on each of us at the same time. Of course. He wanted to know what color the playground was. He could decide for himself once we arrived, I said.

On the interstate, both of them nodded off. Doobins has reached the place in his life at which he no longer takes a nap every day. When he does, care must be taken. If he sleeps too long, he may be still raring to go at midnight. On the other hand, he can be mighty cranky if you wake him up. So taking that step requires a willingness to put up with some huffing and puffing.

When we arrived at the playground, I cut Sparkle Girl loose and sat on a bench with the sleeping Doobins in my arms. It truly is a grand playground. It has three green slides that are taller than any others that I know and two more green slides that are parallel to each other so that kids can slide down side by side. It also has a climbing wall and a faux mountain that kids can climb to reach the upper level.

Sparkle Girl immediately hit it off with another girl and was zip, zip, zipping around.

After a while, the time came to wake up Doobins. Holding him under his arms at the shoulders, I turned him around so that he faced the playground. With his feet dangling, I lowered him until his feet touched.

As I gradually let them absorb more and more of his weight, I hoped for the best.

He came to.

I held my breath. Would he blow?

Not at all. As he took in the vision before him, his eyes grew bigger and bigger.

He had been transported to heaven. That was the only possible explanation.

Well, except for the fact that I was there. As my friend John thoughtfully pointed out when I recounted the story a couple of days later, Doobins must have said to himself, “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

And then Doobins was off.

Sparkle Girl played so hard that her cheeks turned pink. As a bonus, Doobins found that he could drink at the water fountain. He is still short enough that, at most water fountains, even the lower one is an uncomfortable stretch. And heaven forbid that I pick him up so that he can drink. This fountain had a faucet that he could operate himself.

“This water is delicious,” he said.

On the way home, we saw a string of freight cars. Sparkle Girl said it was the longest train that she had ever seen.

We named the playground the Green Playground and vowed to return there soon.