Being Superheroes

Dear Jack,

Today, on the way home, I called to see if Andrew's mom was up for a little adventure. Since she was still at work, the answer was obvious. So instead, we just went and got Andrew and went to the park for a little adventure of our own.

We quickly decided on playing superheroes. Andrew wanted to be Spiderman. Your sister was Wonder Woman. I was Hot Lava Girl. The other little boy at the park was Batman. You, wearing your peace sign shirt, announced you were Happy Peace Guy and there we were, a motley band of crime fighters.

We had a lot of fun just running around the park, pretending different elements were different vehicles or places for the crime fighting action.

That's right. We had a lot of fun just running around the park.

I didn't just sit on a bench watching your fun, or even stand around somewhat involved. I climbed the playscape, slid down the slides and chased the imaginary Cat Woman along with you and your friends.
I rode the teeter totter with you and your sister as we called it the Bat Mobile.

I helped you solve puzzles to get us closer to finding our invisible foe.

I pushed you and Andrew and your sister on the swings. A lot.

And I just ran. Ran after you. Ran after your sister. Ran after Andrew.

It felt so wonderful to be so involved in your play. It felt wonderful to be able to climb a playscape and not wonder if I would put my foot through it. To slide down a slide and not think I would be breaking my neck. To not just walk up the steps to the landing, but to use the foot holds and other climbing spaces to navigate the structure.

I haven't talked a lot about my recent weight loss because I have been waiting until I reach my first goal to write some celebratory post about the journey.

But being able to slide down a slide holding your sister, being up on the playscape with you, chasing after you both, felt so worthy of its own little celebration.

I knew every struggle from the last year was worth it when we were driving home and your sister asked, "Did you just learn how to play like that, Mama?"

You won't remember that I ever didn't.

Love,
Mom