I'm now a parent. I'm a father and a dad, but ever since Anya turned two, I've realized that I also have to be a parent. Maybe you know what I'm talking about. Maybe not. But it's now more apparent than ever before.
Anyway, I'm projecting that these moments will cover a large variety of topics and formats related to parenting but there is some interesting stuff out there and perhaps you can laugh at me as I finally get around to noticing (and learning) what many of you already know.
For example, don't let your girls wear dresses at playgrounds. (And it's not why you think!)
I was at a playground a few weeks ago and another little girl was following Anya around up the stairs and on a bridge. (Yep. That's about it. I don't know what happened during my teen years but all playgrounds became boring during that decade. The swings are short, the teeter totters are nonexistent, there are no merry-go-rounds to get sick on, and the slides have such a high coefficient of friction that greased-up soccer balls won't even slide down them...)
Anyway, so I watch Anya scoot her way down the slide and then another father encourages his own two year old daughter, who is wearing a dress, to go down the slide also. Now, I didn't expect to witness a skin graft that day but unfortunately a layer or two from her calf was likely repositioned to somewhere above her knee. The squeak and then the shriek. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. After her dress stuck, there was no buffer to keep the slide from eating part of its victim...
She did walked away from the surgery but I didn't see her on the slide again that day. In fact, after some tears she gave herself, as expected, her own time out and not for misbehavior. They went home soon after.
I was glad Anya was wearing some shorts that came almost to her ankles that day.
Lesson learned. (At least for any playground near us in Atlanta.)
Bonus: Anya's Lego Project of the week:
