imkittymyers at hotmail dot com
Monday, July 12, 2004
SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH H
Centennial Park, Corning, NY.
Yesterday afternoon, Nurse G and I took Little H to Centennial Park in Corning. It’s a modest ribbon of green, along the Chemung River, with a vine-covered pavilion, trees and benches. It also has a fountain, which is nothing more than water surging about twenty feet straight up from a pipe in the middle of a bricked circular area. Kids love to run through the waterfall while their parents watch from the benches. In his olive cargo shorts and a diaper, Little H dawdled on the sidelines as he watched the older kids’ technique of dashing in and out of the water. Soon he was mimicking them. He watched two little girls bend over and put their heads into the shallow puddles, so he copied them, too, sticking his head into water and laughing uproariously.
He’s at that age when he picks up everything. I was watching him one afternoon while his parents were working. He was riding his toddler’s version of an ATV, which was going nowhere fast.
“The batteries need recharging,” I told him.
Like a traffic cop commanding me to stop, he held up the palm of his hand and informed me, “I’ll fix it.” Then he tipped the vehicle on its end and stood there examining it, hands on hips, shaking his head slowly and saying, “Oh, fock. Yup, fock. Okay, fock.” No doubt he was attempting to enunciate the Queen Mother of Dirty Words. However, with all the linguistic mastery of a two and a half-year-old, it sounded more like f*o*c*k. And trust me: teaching him to say fudge instead produced a worse faux pas.
Yesterday was one of those idyllic summer days of cobalt blue skies and primo sun rays. Living in the Northeast, we are allotted but a precious few of such days. All too soon the season will deteriorate into a sweltering stink when we'll pray for the relief of autumn. What better way to make the most of such a perfect day than to watch Little H giddily dart through the waterfall. My Sunday in the park with H.