“if i jump to that tree in ten hops, i win”
04 Aug 2010 1 Comment
in fun fun fun! Tags: five, fun, little girl, love, swings, teeter totter
do you remember being a five-year-old? wasn’t everything a game? i remember, my brother and i used to play “pillows”. he would lay on my stomach, as if i was his pillow, and after five seconds, i’d run away, and he’d chase me around the house.
yesterday, i got to the kids’ park with the intention of swinging. couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend thought me how to swing. i didn’t quite realize that i can do this all by myself, but now that i do know, i take every opportunity to try to reach the highest possible place, even though i’d be screaming all the way.
there were many kids in the park, so after insuring that none of them want to get on a swing, i sat down next to this little girl.
“what’s your name?” she asked me right away.
“marina,” i said. “what’s yours?”
“my name is anastasia,” the little girl said gleefully. “is that your mother?” she asked, pointing to my long haired boyfriend that is a bit older than me.
i laughed. “no, that is my friend,” i said.
“are you a little girl?” anastasia asked with real interest in her voice and right away called her grandpa to push and swing her higher.
“yes, i suppose i still am a little girl…”
“i am five years old. how old are you?” she was eager to find out all the information about me she possibly could.
“i am twenty-one,” i said.
“is that a lot?” she asked, and not waiting for an answer she said “that is a lot more than five.”
i laughed. she laughed. we continued swinging. she kept calling her grandpa to swing her higher.
we got off the swings and went on a teeter-totter.
“okay, we can only play on the teeter totter when the this traffic light is green,” anastasia gave me the rules of the game while pointing at the traffic light behind. i said that was okay, so we waited for a traffic light to turn green.
up-down-up-down-up-down, her grandpa told me not to push her all the way and not to do it fast, but she had her complaints about that. “faster and higher, but only when the light is green,” she kept saying.
than we just went walking around the park, looking for new rides. since nothing interested her, she said, “i will hop to that tree. if i do it in ten hops, i win.”
i laughed to myself. that is indeed pure joy. pure game. homo ludens in its best. she impressed me.
ah, it’s gotta be so good to be five!
