And then came the boys

It was getting on past dinner time, but Nora went for her shoes, and said, "Nora, shoes, mama, shoes, outside walka sideWALK?"

And so we went. Down the sidewalk, hippity skippy running headlong down the block, screeching 90 degrees left ("rrrrt rrt rt!" just like, you know, the cartoon guys as they peel around a corner, hopping on one foot to make the turn - it was like that). Alongside the chainlink fence and to the playground, directly.

The playground. We're lucky and unlucky that it sits just behind our house. You know, with the "bigga red SLIIIIDE" and the "litto red SLIIIIDE" and the "kime-ing uppda da steps"? It's nice equipment, really. Rounded edges and bright plastic. Wood chips below to cushion falls.

So tonight, there we were. Sliding and climbing. Climbing and sliding. Nora doing it "self!!" And then came the boys.

They arrived shrieking, gangly like daddy long legs, throwing themselves wildly to the ground and up again, scrambling on nothing but air to appear at the top of the jungle gym, hurtling themselves at each other and into the dirt with joyous cries of "OWWW! OUCH! OHH YEAHHH!" There was a rubber-band--propelled rocket ship, and a shoe was flung, and you could hardly make out one boy from another amidst the dust.

Nora stood stock still, her chin set, her round toddler belly pushed out, her eyes piercing. What, she seemed to be thinking, was this bacchanalia?

Her observation was careful and thorough. And then. And THEN.

Nora peeled off across the playground, waving her arms in the air, shrieking "OWW! OUCHIE! BLABOOBLABLAHBLAH!" She shook her pigtails and hopped. Then she stopped, and carefully plopped her bum onto the ground, and lay herself back, approximating the giddy experiments in bodily harm of the boyfolk.

She stood, and galloped to the big slide. By which we mean, The Big Slide. The very tall, very metal, very narrow slide meant only for trained slide Olympians, under the supervision of a full medical team. She pulled herself onto the lip, and with her rubber-bottomed shoes, Nora scrambled straight up that incline, turned herself around on the platform (six, ohmygod seven feet up!), and slid right back down.

Mama's jaw dropped, and there was some clucking, ruffled attempt to put her hands up near where Nora stood, but it was done. Nora, a little sweaty and ever-determined, said, "Nora uppa big slide. Nora big girl now!"

And the boys went whooping past.