New Park + Boyo = Flying Wolves. And Pirates

Boyo and I decided to check out a new park the other day.  It was just him, his two little sisters, and me. 

The park was awesome -- but there was no one there.  Seriously, NO ONE.  Picture a western, with tumble weeds rolling down the main street of a ghost town.  That was this park. 

Which means Boyo had no one to play with.

"MO-OM!" he shouted.  "You HAFTA play with me!"

I'm mildly ashamed to admit that my first thought was crap. 

Normally when we go to the park, we go with other moms and kids.  So I get to sit and visit while my son runs around like a maniac and BabyGirlie eats sand and BabyBug naps in the stroller. 

After my initial bad Mommy moment, I decided to get into it.  After all, I rarely get Boyo all to myself.  And when I do, half the time he doesn't want to play with me -- he wants to play on my phone. 

I put BabyGirlie in the sandbox, my phone in my back pocket, and parked BabyBug in the shade.  Then I turned to Boyo. 

"What are we playing?" I asked. 

I expected Tag.  Or Hide and Seek.  Or pushing him on the swings. 

Oh no. 

"You hafta run," he instructed me. 

"Run where?"

"Up," he said like I was an idiot.  "The pirates are coming!  The pirates are coming!"

So we ran around the park screaming about pirates for about 20 minutes.  And then he crawled under the play structure -- "Hurry Mommy!  The wolves are coming!!"

"Wolves?" I asked.

"They are flying from the sky and will eat us up!"

So we hid from the flying wolves.  Then the pirates and the wolves started fighting, but it was okay because we were Jedis and we fought them away.

Then we had to save his sisters from the "otopus" that was going to steal them away.  So we fought off the "otopus" with blaster guns like Buzz Lightyear.  And then the bugs from Wreck It Ralph showed up, so we had to fight those off too.  Then we needed to swing super high so we could fly up to be with God.  Then we ran around some more, yelling about Darth Vader and how we had to save little Anakin.

I had the best time.

For a good hour, I didn't say no.  I got to yell with my son instead of at my son.  I got to see my son's creativity blossom.  I got a work out.  And I got to laugh hysterically with him. 

I was feeling pretty good as we got in the car -- smug.  You know, having one of those, "I'm a rock star Mom" moments.  And I told Boyo - "Thanks for playing with me today."

"Yeah," he said.  "I guess you are okay to play with -- for a girl."