You know what they say about a car wreck, where it’s so awful you can’t look away? Well, the good news is that on this occasion, I'm not referring to an actual car wreck. The bad news is that the metaphorical car wreck in this instance refers to a certain event from this afternoon involving Ellie and Ethan. I'll get there soon enough though.
First things first. Today was an absolutely beautiful day. Seriously. If you live in the Kansas City metropolitan area and didn't get outside, then you missed an amazing 65 degree afternoon. By the way, it IS still December. I double checked a calendar just to make sure. Anyway, for myself and the kids, we chose to spend this afternoon at Barry Platte Park soaking up the warm weather on what could be the final park trip of 2020. That's actually a thought that is both sobering and exciting at the same time. After all, I'm pretty sure everyone (except maybe Patrick Mahomes) wants 2020 to end as soon as humanly possible.
Upon our arrival at the park, I let Ellie go on ahead and scamper up the hill to the playground while I extracted Ethan from his car seat. By the time the two of us made it up the hill, I was just in time to watch Ellie attempt to make it across the monkey bars on her first attempt of the day. Unfortunately, that attempt was not to be. Instead, she let go of the bars and dropped a good four feet to the ground. While you might think that would stop her, that was not to be the case as Ellie was right back up on the bars for her second attempt. The second went much the same which resulted in her taking a short break to enjoy the swings.
After 10 minutes of enjoying the array of swings Barry Platte Park has to offer, Ellie gave into her minor obsession and decided to try the monkey bars again. Standing with her toes right at the edge of the platform, Ellie took a deep breath and grasped the first bar. Then, she swung herself off of the platform and began to dangle in mid-air. With that, one rung at a time, she began to move across the bars. As she reached the next-to-last bar, it looked like she was about to give out. However, she instead used every ounce of strength left to propel herself to the ladder leading to the ground. Once she climbed down, she immediately ran to me and wrapped her little arms around me as tightly as she could. I'm guessing she just wanted me to share in her joy and success.
Oh yes, I almost forgot; I need to share the story of the metaphorical car wreck. On what was probably Ellie's seventh trip across the monkey bars, Ethan decided to run underneath her as she was traversing the bars. Unfortunately for the little man, he took a errant kick to the head from Ellie on his way. While I was busying myself with calming Ethan, Ellie lost her grip on the monkey bars. While she had landed on the ground a few times already, this time she managed to fall forwards in the air, ultimately landing on her face. Fortunately for Ellie, nothing was hurt but her pride, although there were definitely tears streaming down her face.
In case you're wondering how I handled this situation, i.e. standing in a park with two screaming children, it was easy. I simply loaded both up and headed for home. After all, Bethany was on her way home from the office and I figured she could calm them if they were still angry when we got home. Spoiler alert: they were not. #DaddyWrite
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