Lift Up Your Hearts!

Yesterday we also went to the neighborhood playground, Heather and I walking, and Jonathan sometimes pulling, mostly riding in, the little red wagon which had last seen service on Independence Day as the water wagon for the Greater Geneva Grande Award Marching Band.

The playground has been modified several times since our children pitted my maternal instincts against my desire to let them explore freely. Fear of lawsuits clearly drove the removal of our favorite tall, curving slide, then the great merry-go-round, and most of the climbing equipment. These were replaced by lawyer-safe, wimpy, plastic constructions, more suited to a McDonald’s than a park and of minimal interest to any child over three. So I was thrilled to discover that yet another metamorphosis had occurred, and the new playground equipment is great! It retains many of the safety features of its predecessor—constructed of cooler materials set on a soft, flexible base—but definitely provides a challenging environment. The play set labelled for five to 12 year olds actually was for the most part too challenging for 22 month old Jonathan, and the set for younger children provided sufficient adventures in climbing and sliding. My only complaint is that neither had a brachiation ladder, which is high on my list of bare minimum playground equipment, but the addition of a small version of an indoor climbing wall almost made up for that lack.

Today we went to a different playground, where Jonathan opted for vestibular stimulation in the form of about 20 minutes of continuous swinging, which also provided good exercise for the pushers, since even the slightest slowing down of our efforts provoked the imperious command, “Fast! Fast!”