Something funny happened today...

Dang cats,,, that's not funny!!!
(Ok maybe a little,, but still!!)

Something (fun)ny happened yes, but really that's not new for me. I can find comedy anywhere. It scares me sometimes. The other day there were two grasshoppers in my driveway. They were about a foot away from my son's car door. My son was not a big fan of this because these were "Uber" grasshoppers, grasshoppers so large that you could ride them as horses comfortably over hills and through flowered meadow.

Traxx immediately recognized one of the grasshoppers as "Hopper" from Disney's "A bug's Life", and this was certainly a disturbing thing because "Hopper" was very, very mean. But there was more to the story. The bottom uber-grasshopper was dead, and the other was standing over it with one "hand" on its lifeless chest. I swear he looked at me as if to say: "this was a cherished friend and I am in mourning". The girls agreed. I got that feeling he was eulogizing him and I went off into my tangent of an elaborate bug funeral. Everyone joined in adding little totally random trivial snippets about the dead hopper, like the time him and Jiminy Cricket got sick after staying up all night eating candy and annoying people with their chirpy songs . And then I got called weird.

I always get called weird, but I'm OK with that.

If this was in your path, would you jump?

It's very rare that you see an adult letting loose with their kids outside of their home. It's like we have some force field around us as adults that prevents us from just being random and unstructured with them. Are we afraid that others will look and judge us for our childish acts? Certainly if you are doing them without a child with you, there might be a problem (as in my case, snort), but when my kids are with me that's my license to loosen up the ingrained "adult" sensibilities and let us ALL be kids for a while (if in an appropriate situation, of course, yada, yada, yada, wakka, wakka, wakka). I always smile if I see this fun interaction with children in public. And when I am the center of it, it does not embarrass me in the least. But lately I have not been feeling like "myself" and I have been forgetting to do this like I used to. I have to get over that, they won't stop growing up for me to snap back into "me" again, I will just miss valuable time.

So this is what happened today.

My daughter had a dental appointment. I sat in the kids waiting area with Traxx. He was getting a little bored of the activities we had brought and I needed to reel him in a bit. With all of the seats being connected I decided I could get him to use his imagination and pretend we were at a theme park and on a thrill ride. It did not take long before we were engaged. After we put our restraint belts on and the safety bar down over our laps, the announcement to keep your hands and feet in the car at all times was made. I also warned that the coaster was going through a library so we needed to be as quiet as we could (see I'm not rude).

And then,,, we were off.

With a little direction he was in his own colorful world, and I was his sidekick. I wish I could zone back into a kids mind and see what he saw. I showed him how to put his arms up at the tip-top of the hill and the force of turns pushed us into each other as we went around loop-de- loop, giggling quietly with each other. The clicking of the coaster jolted us back each time we climbed a hill and the force of the drop pushed us back into the chairs as we again raised our hands. I am sure this made for a funny visual to those around not "in the know".

Those clinic chairs turned into a fierce dragon-coaster for almost an hour. A few kids joined in cautiously as their parents looked at me as if I was insane.

Two staunch looking elderly adults came in and began to stare at us all. But I was not there for the adults, I was there for my child and we were not harming anyone, the children joining in also kept voices low and the giggles were free but restrained in decibel. The very tame looking individuals decided to sit on the "coaster" wall. Traxx whispered to them that they were on the dragon-coaster and informed them what color their "dragon-cars" were. I expected them to snidely reject his playfulness and possibly move to a better seating arrangement. Instead, they belted up and put their safety bar down for the ride. The woman even asked if we could wait to go until she put her purse down. Of course we did.

There we were, 3 adults and 5 kids on a dragon roller coaster in the middle of a dental clinic, arms in the air, wind whistling through our hair. Not caring that we looked silly, not caring that it made little sense to the passer-bys in the hall, but all living in the moment and enjoying children as they should be enjoyed,,, being kids. And being serenaded with the best sound in the world,,,,, laughter.

When I stood up to leave (Oooops, I mean when we exited the coaster "to the left"), the elderly gentleman grabbed my hand and thanked Traxx and I for the "amazing ride". He served up a sweet wink at me and they continued another pass on the coaster with the remaining children.

I wonder how long the coaster ran today.

I dare you to try this.. I dare you to step out of adult shoes and into those of the little ones. Skip with them in the store.. Eat pop-rocks while swinging at the park.. Share a shake with them while playing a game of "I spy" in a restaurant....

Double Dog Dare you!!! (no one can walk away from a Double Dog Dare!)