Blossoms: Horse chestnuts in bloom, both white and red.

Weather: Sandals weather! I hate wearing shoes and socks, so I'm happy that is finally warm enough to wear sandals.

Playground Morning

During our zoo trip on Friday, I talked to Patty about having Patrick come over to play with Daniel on Sunday. We finally decided to meet at a playground, and we invited Denise to bring Danny, Daniel's other friend from school.

So yesterday morning shortly before 10 a.m., I loaded the three kids into the van, and we drove to Veterans Park in Hamilton. We were the first of our group to arrive; in fact there weren't many people there at all yet.

When Daniel was a baby, I used to walk him in his stroller along the many bike paths in this park, but I haven't been there recently. Veterans Park has one of the largest playgrounds in Mercer County; unfortunately, the layout of the playground equipment is very haphazard and too spread out, making it difficult to keep an eye on three kids at once. Nor are the benches in a convenient location for viewing. The kids enjoy this playground when Tab brings them here, however.

Patty and Patrick soon showed up. Daniel called out, "Patrick!" when he saw them arrive and the twins ran to give Patrick hugs. Stephen and Matthew have become the de facto mascots of Daniel's class. Whenever we drop Daniel off or pick him up at school, the other kids clamor for hugs from the twins.

Then Denise arrived along with her son Danny, the other boy in Daniel's kindergarten class, and her nephew, Chaz. It was interesting to watch the interactions of the four older boys. For the most part, Daniel, Danny, and Chaz ran around together, swinging hand over hand on the monkey bars and climbing the jungle gyms. Patrick usually trailed behind. Periodically, he would run to his mother to complain. "Mommy! They're playing the snake game again!"

Patty explained, "That's a version of tag that they play, only Patrick is slow so he is always the snake." Denise and I both called our sons over and told them to take turns being the snake.

Then the four boys ran to the horse swings. Daniel, Danny, and Chaz hopped right on and began swinging, while Patrick waited by the fourth swing, calling his mother to help him up on to his swing and then demanding that she push him.

Patrick reminds me a little of Matthew, or the way Matthew might have turned out if he didn't have brothers to run around and tussle with. Patrick doesn't have siblings to toughen him up. Patty is divorced from Patrick's father, a man more than 20 years older than her. She and Patrick live with her parents in Ewing Township, not far from where I grew up. (In fact, in talking about the neighborhood, we discovered that my father once yelled at Patty and her younger brother when they tried to cut through our yard to the woods behind our house, many years ago.)

Our visit to the playground was not without incident, of course. Daniel fell from the top of a large, 5' high metal tube that is meant to be crawled through not climbed on. Nothing was broken, fortunately, but he must have bruised his hip because he favored one leg for the rest of the day. Then Matthew tripped and skinned his elbow. I brought him to the car and opened up our newly stocked first-aid kit. It's the first time I've had to use it, but not the last I'm sure.

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