It's All Fun and Games Until...

Yesterday we took Max to the park. Lauren went running and left Max in the trusting care of his father. I took Max to the swing set. He loves to swing. I do not think there is a happier spot for him than the swing in a crowded playground. He probably would sit there all day if we let him. The lady next to us, who was wearing red, was nice and said hello. She was pushing a little girl about two years old. She asked me how old Max was. I said 13 months (which I hate the whole month/age thing but it is better than saying 1 and 1/12th). She said, “Wow he sure is big.” We get that a lot because Max, apparently, is big for his age. So I respond with, “Yea he is. We can’t wait for the circus to come to town so we enter him into the freak show”. I said it with a smile. I was trying to be funny. The nice lady in red just kind of looked at me and took her little girl out of the swing and said “Heh?…Good Night”.

After 15 minutes of swinging it was time to stop. Max through a fit. Screaming and yelling. I kept nervously looking over my shoulder like the cops were going to come and arrest me because of, as my mother would put it, “ screaming bloody murder”. After I calmed him down we went over to the big primary colored jungle gym/sliding board area. The ground was a rubbery type of mat so I decided to let Max crawl around and try to walk a little bit. He was, of course, interested in picking up leaves and rocks and stuff. Every time he picked up a leaf or small debris I grabbed it from him so he wouldn’t eat it. He would whine a bit, but then find something different to grab. Max then grabbed a stick. A good size stick that he could not choke on. So I let him play with it. There we are in the middle of the jungle gym play set thing, kids running all around and Max wants to play with a stick. He got a little excited and started swinging it. Just as the lady in red walks past, Max pokes himself in the eye with the stick. He cut himself on the lower eyelid. He started bleeding. The lady in red just kind of shook her head as if to say, “ that kid does not stand a chance.”