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." 

Art Classes

I had recently signed Girlie up for art classes.

She was very excited, since she loves to draw and color. And she was very proud of her new art kit.

She practically bounced into her first class. And she was thrilled when she found out that they would be drawing a horse, since her new invisible friend is Fluttershy, a My Little Pony.

"Oh, no," the instructor told her, when she realized what Girlie was doing. "We aren't doing this freehand. We are going to copy this horse, which was painted by an artist named Degas."

Girlie looked at her paper and then looked at the photo she was supposed to copy. And the she looked her art teacher right in the eye and said, "I don't want to."

The art teacher blinked and then looked at me. I shrugged. I was not the go to person at this point.

"Why not?" The art teacher asked.

"Because that horsie doesn't have wings or pink hair," Girlie explained in a tone that clearly conveyed she thought the art teacher was an idiot.

"But... but... that's the picture we are copying," the art teacher said, at a loss.

"Well, that's dumb," Girlie said.

At that point, I stepped in. Even though I agreed with her - that is dumb. If she wants to draw a horse her way, why not let her? I want her to learn techniques in a creative environment, not in a factory setting. But I can't have my daughter telling a teacher that the activity is dumb - it's rude and, as a teacher, I can't let her think that is appropriate.

"Girlie, that's rude," I said firmly. Girlie meekly apologized. "Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do," I continued. "This is the activity the teacher planned, and this is what you are going to do."

"Can I draw Fluttershy when I get home?" Girlie asked me.

"Of course," I said. "You just have to draw the horse the teacher picked out for class today."

So Girlie dutifully copied the horse Degas drew. And then we went home and she drew Fluttershy. Personally, I like Fluttershy better.