Old McDonalds

Brady is a big fan of food from Old McDonald's, at least that's what he calls it. Not that we go there often, but in a pinch, I've been known to use the drive through. One day we were out all morning running errands no where near our house and needing to both eat lunch and kill about an hour before a scheduled play date. I remembered a McDonald's near where we were with a playground. Brilliant, I thought to myself, we'll get lunch and burn a little time before our next stop. We've not eaten in a McDonald's with a playground before, but I'm sure everything will work out well. If you've read many other stories on my blog, you'll remember that anytime I think I'm brilliant is not a good sign.

First we go to the counter and order our food, which goes well. We sit down and eat our food. Brady couldn't be better behaved. He looks longingly at the playground, but doesn't put up a fight about eating his lunch first. Now it is time to go play. Brady dutifully takes off his shoes, puts them in a cubby and races off. He gets to the two story tube-and-bubble-with-slides-type playground and quickly discovers that there are no stairs to get up to the top, but rather staggered landings, which are too far apart for him to climb. If only he was an inch taller. I start to feel really bad for him as kids that are not much bigger than him climb by him time and again. Brady doesn't mind too much and goes to play in the bottom of one of the tube slides - climb up inside the slide a few feet, slide back down, etc. At one point, inspiration must have struck, because the next thing I know, a pair of socks come flying out the end of the slide, and I can't see my son anymore. Next thing I know, I hear "Hi mommy, " and I look up to see Brady sitting in one of the clear plastic bubbles at the top of the two story structure, which has somehow just grown in height to what seems to be about five stories. How he climbed up the inside of that slide so fast, I'll never know, but he's happy and everything is completely enclosed up there, so we're good.

Brady plays for a while in the tunnels at the top of the playground, then a while longer, and a little while more. He's as happy as a clam in the tunnel, but seems apprehensive about the slide. We start running out of time, and he's not coming down. Kids pass by him and I ask him several times to follow them down the slide. No, he says. We really need to get going. I take a look at the staggered landings to see if I can climb up there. While the landings were too far apart for Brady, they're not far enough apart for my increasingly pregnant body. I consider climbing up the slide the same way Brady did, but that doesn't seem like it will work too well either. Multiple warnings of it being time to leave, and he's still not budging. I begin to look around at the other adults in the area and consider asking them for help. Most are grandparents, but one dad about my age looks promising. I decide to keep him in mind as a last resort as I couldn't imagine a conversation that wouldn't be incredibly embarrassing for me. I think to myself, Brady has to come down sometime, at some point he'll be hungry, then I remember that we just ate, so it could be a while. Brady is still having a wonderful time sitting at the top and smiling down at me. I begin to wonder if McDonald's has an official plan for kids who are "stuck" in their playground with pregnant moms who can't reach them.

Finally, in desperation, I decide I will tell Brady I'm leaving, walk away, and see what happens. I realize this could either go very well resulting in Brady coming down like I need him to, or very badly with a hysterical, crying child at the top of the playground that I still can't reach. Fortunately this story ends well. I tell Brady bye and begin to leave when I hear "No, mommy, wait for me." I turn around, and zip, down the slide he comes, laughing the whole way. As we're putting his shoes on, I ask him if that was fun. "Yeah," he says, "I do it again." "Some other time, buddy," I tell him, like when you're six.