It seems 3 is a magic number, as suddenly Lucy is all about going down the flying fox "all by myself". Once she took that first ride I thought I'd never leave the park - "more!", and (her favourite) "again!". As she dangled on the seat above, I dragged her up to the platform by the rope, made sure she was stuck fast, and then let her rip. Then I would have to run downhill at great speed all the while snapping photos of this daring feat. I didn't care that a man and his boy were looking on probably thinking how silly I looked, as I noticed earlier when talking to him that he had bits of tissue stuck to his top lip and that surely must make him the sillier of us two.
Audrey watched on from her buggy (she is unbelievably patient) while Lucy rode a thousand rides, and I got all hot in the cooling late afternoon air.
And you know I am all about keeping sick kids away from healthy kids. After Lucy’s one week birthday party fest she came down with something yesterday. I think an open air park is not off-limits though so long as the sick child gives others some space, and when we arrived it was pretty deserted. And Lucy, at first glance, looks totally normally.
So Lucy’s riding the flying fox and tissue-paper man and his kid came over. Lucy finished her ride, and as she handed the rope over to the other boy a spontaneous and violent coughing fit erupted, and I have to admit it sounded pretty dreadful. The man tried to hide the fact he was reeling, though his young son couldn’t have cared less, grabbing the rope from the hand she had coughed into. Lucy insisted on further rides. If I were the man I would have hotfooted it to another part of the park, but his boy too insisted on more rides. Damn. Oh well, with any luck he would have gotten back into his car and found his papier-mached upper lip and forgotten all about that wretched sick child on the flying fox.
Now every time Lucy coughs she immediately says 'I'm feeling better already'. Hmm, not sure about that Lucy though positive thinking surely must help.
Audrey's signature tight-lip smile
What a great time. I love the flying fox! It looks like it'd be a ball. Apparently the NZ liability laws are a little more liberal than those here in California, where you would never see such a thing.
ReplyDeleteI bet my son would LOVE the flying fox, too bad he probably won't hold on for more than 5 seconds now even if I let him try!
ReplyDeleteAnd I love seeing pictures of Audrey- she's like a little cherub!
sounds like a lovely afternoon, it's that sort of outdoor adventure that really injects some fun into the day.
ReplyDeleteI love these photos and your narrative.
samantha's right - that fun ride would never fly in calif. too bad..there is something like that in disneyland but you have to be yay tall to play on it.
ReplyDeletebeautiful pics! NZ has such lovely greeness.
I think the last two photos of Lucy are the most adorable yet. Her face is so joyful. So worth any looking silly on your part!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe there are children out there who will never experience this very important childhood ride!
ReplyDeleteWe have ACC here in NZ which means people receive financial help for injuries (even drunken ones, which is rather disturbing). It seems to do away with sueing though.