One Monkey Begets a Little Monkey

On a rare day off for all of us last week, we took Mason out to Copperton Park. I guess Alan's family used to go out there when Alan was younger and he has some pretty fond memories of it. Plus, it's huge and has a wide variety of playground equipment that can occupy children of all ages so that was a major selling point.



As anyone who knows Mason will not be surprised to learn the first things he noticed were the two huge (by huge, I mean tall) metal slides in the middle of the play area. Now, where I previously mentioned "children of all ages", I should have also mentioned this: the top picture really didn't capture the awe I had for my child and how crazy he can be. That would be the metal slide to his left. The "stairs" would be to his right. He was climbing up the side of this thing, completely ignoring the pseudo-stairs that were scaring even one of the six-year-old boys who was there with his own family. That's right: my two-year-old likes to free climb. When this picture was taken, he was probably about 4-5 feet off the ground.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of his joy on these tall metal slides because gravity caught a hold of him and took him down so fast I couldn't catch it. In the midst of the speed drop, he also mastered a turn to his stomach that boggled some of the older kids and made observing dads chuckle and shake their heads (probably glad it wasn't their kid!).



The second picture is one of my favorites. It shows his pure skepticism of swinging. Apparently, this kid would rather slide. Although, with Dad's assistance, I think the tire climb was a close second. I also have a picture of Mason coming down a slide, head first and on his stomach, that I love. I couldn't get it to post right, so I'll have to do it for a Wordless Wednesday or something. Overall, we had a great time.

Once the late-afternoon weather proved too hot for us, we retreated to a McDonald's Playland so he could continue climbing and sliding indoors. I'm starting to think he would enjoy that fire pole Alan wants to install.