I had a moment this weekend. Well, I had many moments; however, this one moment I felt compelled to write about and share. It was one of those moments that I will probably forget about; but, I don’t want to. I want to remember this moment, the feeling that accompanied it, and the joy that it brought to my heart. Don’t get your hopes up, now. This was not some life changing revelation or spiritual awakening or big jackpot Powerball lotto win. Maybe that’s why it meant so much to me? No one around saw it. No one around noticed it. But I saw. I felt it. I felt it in the depths of my heart.
My wife was home for the first weekend in a while. She has worked weekends for the past three years and kept our kids at home during the weekdays. Yeah, I know. She’s an awesome wife and mother. Being that she had this weekend off, we decided to do something together as a family. After naptime, we made our way to Jumping Jax’s, the indoor playplace, heaven on earth for children under twelve! This place has it all, slides that are two stories tall, ball pits for toddlers and ‘big kids’, a huge jungle gym, a baby area, a toddler area, a ‘big kid’ area and even a place for parents to get massaged (for a small fee). Yeah, it’s legit. This was our second visit. We went once with a family friend and our kids had a blast. So, what special place could we take them to when it was cold, rainy and kind of snowy outside? You guessed it, Jumping Jax’s.
Believe it or not, everyone else had the same idea we did. The place was packed to the max. We paid our fee, removed ours and the kids’ shoes and made our way to the big slide. On our previous adventure my daughter, Ruby, would climb up the walkway to the big slide all on her own. The walkway has bumps and lumps to help kids climb the almost forty foot climb to the top.
Well of course, this time she is too afraid to climb.
When I went to put her down, she whimpered and whined indicating to me that she had no intention of climbing up the slide or even going down. So, I put her on my hip, gritted my teeth, and climbed up the kiddie slide with her. Yep. Thirty-one year old dad climbing up the slide, toddler in arms, attempting to avoid being stampeded by kids rushing to the top. I didn’t feel too bad because my wife was right beside me accompanying my three year old son, Charlie. He had no trouble climbing up. Quick as a whip. He even let other kids go first. He’s nice like that.
We got to the top and were ready to go down. My hips barely fit. High places always look higher when you are at the highest point. I’m trying to say it was high. I put Ruby in my lab. She’s held on for dear life. I counted to three.
And we were off! The slide had four humps that slowed you down and then sped you up again. With each hump, Ruby tightened her grip. I expect tears at any moment. Just kind of expecting the worse, you know? We got to the bottom, Ruby stood up, and squealed. It’s a happy squeal! She loved it. She had a smile as wide as her face and she clapped her hands harder than I've ever seen. That’s not all. As I got up from the slide and began to walk away, she turned the corner and ran toward the walkway to go back on the slide! She wanted to go again! And so I did what every ‘trying-to-be-a-good-daddy’ daddy would do, I put her on my hip and we headed back to the top of the slide.
After going down the slide a few times, getting super sweaty and swinging on the automatic swings; we sat down for a break. The kids enjoyed a juice pouch and crackers while us adults rehydrated with water. We decided to take it easy for a bit and play in the toddler play area.
The toddler play area has a ball pit, a mini slide and a playable piano that kids can run on and play tunes. My kids, and wife, loved the ball pit. My wife, son and daughter threw balls at one another for at least ten minutes. I helped Ruby go up the little slide a couple of times and sent her down by herself. She loved it! Charlie didn’t even bother going up the little slide. He wasn’t a baby.
This is where the moment happened.
My wife and I were sitting side-by-side in the ball pit watching our kids play. Ruby was making her way to the walkway to the toddler slide. She kept looking at us and making a noise. It was as if she was saying, “Hey, get off your butt and come help me up this slide”! I crawled over to her, fully intended on not helping her, and began slowly crawling up the slide myself. She laughed and then began crawling up the walkway herself.
Here was the moment.
As I crawled up the walkway beside her, she smiled and began crawling up the walkway all on her own. By herself. No whining, no fussing. The only noise that I could hear at that moment was my daughter giggling and laughing. The noise from the other one hundred kids in that place was gone for a moment. The world around us faded from view. All I could see was Ruby. Her in those glasses, smiling from ear to ear, showing all the teeth she had. She was a happy girl.
And I was one proud daddy.
I was proud that my daughter had conquered this small fear of hers and was now climbing beside me on the way to the top of the toddler slide. One could look at this and think: dude, it’s just a toddler slide. But it’s more than that. It’s so much more than that. She did it on her own. No help from daddy needed. The pride just swelled up inside of me. She got to the top all by herself. I asked her if she wanted to go down the slide and she gave her typical Ruby response: Uh huh!
After a stop at Chick-fil-a, which makes any day just that much better, we made our way back home. The kiddos had their belly full and were really tired. I don’t think Ruby made a single noise on the way home. Charlie asked all of his normal questions about life and everything associated with it. In the quiet, I did some thinking.
I had felt that feeling I had Jumping Jax’s before. I experienced it when both of my children started crawling, walking on their own and when they called me their daddy for the first time. But driving home, thoughts kept going through my mind of all the proud moments to come in the lives of my children. Going to school, participating in sports, graduation, going off to (or staying at home for) college, Charlie finding the woman of his dreams like I did, and Ruby getting married. Those days are coming. In all honesty, they are probably going to get here faster than I want them to; but, I have no control over that.
What I do have control over are the memories that I make with my children. I want to cherish those moments like I experienced at Jumping Jax’s. When those moments happen, I want to love on my babies and express my emotion in the most ‘non-embarrsing’ way for them. I can’t promise that I won’t scoop them up and give them hugs and kisses when I’m proud of them. I can’t promise there won’t be any happy tears because I’m a pretty tenderhearted guy. I can’t even promise I won’t miss them crying in the middle of the night, because that means I get to hold them for a few extra minutes.
But I can promise one thing. I promise I’ll be there. Unless God takes me home first, I’ll be there for the ouchies, for the heartbreaks and for everything.
I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Love, peace and all the good things. Thanks for reading. Have a great day!