Tales of the New Playground OR How to Break My Heart

Since our playground has been closed, due to the fire, we have started frequenting another local playground. While slightly less awesome than Shane's Inspiration, there is a dog park next door so Matilda doesn't seem too miffed by the change. Matilda is currently obsessed with riding things (our knees, backs, the guitar case, her donkey, etc.) and spent most of the time today going back and forth between these pelican and whale bouncers.


The new playground has a slightly different vibe and a much higher nanny-to-parent ratio. Wednesday, I had two encounters related: one amusing and one not so. My funny exchange was after Matilda had gone barging into the middle of a group to steal a ball. The nannies discovered I spoke Spanish after I answered a question they had asked each other in Spanish about Matilda. They then proceeded to ask many questions about my Spanish speaking skills and finally after beating around the bush for a while one woman just blurted out, "Please speak Spanish, I want to hear you!" It was fun to be a trick monkey and practice my language skills again.


The heart breaking part came when I was chatting with another little girl who had gravitated to play with Matilda and me. The girl had very large buttons that M was very excited about and kept getting all in her face to yell BUH and push on a button. She rode the bouncers for a few minutes with us and then gave me a play by play as Matilda wandered around. "She going. She coming. She going. She coming." Then the girl told me she goes to the playground with her mommy. She was clearly there with her nanny and so I said something about how that was nice. She then went on to very sadly say, "I want Mommy and Daddy.'" She wasn't crying about it but I almost was. Especially after she repeated it a few times. I am sure her nanny is nice enough and not neglectful or anything. Even I have moments many days that I feel that way, but this just really touched me.