The Playground

The last time we were in Florida visiting my parents, Ben got a big cut on his arm while at the playground. The incident is one for the record books, according to my father and husband.

It began innocently enough. My mother and I had dropped them off at a beautifully renovated playground in the heart of town. We took the car and went to a lovely boutique to pursue our favorite pastime of shopping. My mother had taken her cell phone with her in case the men needed us. She's not used to carrying it, so everytime the boutique phone rang my mother would check her cell. While involved in an intense debate over a pair of sunglasses, her cell phone really did ring. Mom didn't notice this time because it wasn't as loud as the store phone. We finally answered, and Mike told us that Ben had gotten hurt and wanted to go home. He went onto to say, that he had gone down a slide very fast and bounced off the rubber, protective mulch they had on the ground. On impact, he flew through the air over both my dad and Mike's heads and landed on the pavement 6 feet in front of them. He had a gash on his elbow and was very upset. When I hung up, my mother popped a valium and (after trying on one more pair of glasses) we left to get them. Once there, the men brought us to the scene of the incident. When I asked what they were doing while my baby was flying through the air, they said they were trying to catch him, of course. My Dad even waved his arms over his head to illustrate just how high Ben "flew". In the midst of the hysteria, Mike said another mother had come over to add that Ben's flight was a record for this playground. My mother was skeptical and called a young boy over to reenact the incident for her satisfaction. Luckily, he wouldn't.

This is indeed the "fish story" of our family. While Ben is skinny and rubber mulch is bouncy, there is no way he flew over their heads. They were probably discussing rocket science and didn't notice my angel was hurt until he started screaming. Ben has since sworn off that playground. Max, on the otherhand, had so much fun he still doesn't realize Ben got hurt. Why should he be different then Mike and my dad?