Atch Ow!

We went out clothes shopping for the little ones this afternoon and, unfortunately for Jen, they are still boys. She has said many times that she would rather not be the only girl in the family because little boys don't get to wear cute dresses and frilly little outfits. Unless, of course, they happen to be her little brother. She apparently dressed up her youngest brother in dresses from time to time when they were both kids. Not that there is anything wrong with that - I'm not here to judge. Anyway, it is nice that she now has a few friends with little girls so that she can indulge in what appears to be a pathological need to purchase little pink dresses.

It has been said that little boys and little girls are different from each other, and not just in the genitalia. As the rhyme goes, little girls are made of sugar and spice and all things nice, and little boys are made from frogs and snails and puppy dog tails and they are fearless and don't give a rip about their own safety and are, it seems, completely willing to jump from a ledge about 4 1/2 feet off the ground onto, thankfully, a large air mattress despite the fact that they have yet to reach their 2nd birthday.

I might have that a bit wrong, but it is fairly accurate.

The other day we were at a dinner gathering that was both adult and kid friendly. This means that the party had both beer and a other little kids that our little kids got along well with. As an added bonus in the kid-friendly department, there was a bouncy castle which belonged to the host family. For those of you without kids or without a soul, a bouncy castle is one of the greatest things ever in that it is a room sized contraption that is totally inflatable. This inflatability results in a safe, bouncy, fun little room loved by kids of all ages. I think I might have actually seen Ryan wipe away tears of joy when this castle was unveiled.

In addition to a thick inflated floor, this particular bouncy castle had a climbing wall which was a little over 4 feet tall. This wall then led to a slide which could be either used as a slide or, in a pinch, as a slanted trampoline capable of propelling the kids into the opposite wall a few feet away. I'm not sure I ever saw it used as a slide and I was, to say the least, a tad anxious for the safety of all involved.

We had kept Ethan out of the castle because we were worried that he was too small and might get pushed around by the bigger kids. He was unhappy with this and kept pointing to the castle, saying "Peas! Peas! Bown!" (Translation: Please! Please! Bounce!). We could distract him with a variety of things, but after a short break his eyes would invariably wander back to the castle. After some of the larger kids got out for a break, I thought it might be a good chance for Ethan to get a shot at it, so I put him in there along with Ryan and the other 5 year old boy, Thomas.

Ethan took a few minutes to get used to walking on the bouncy surface, but eventually got comfortable and began running around. He crashed into Ryan a few times yet seemed more interested in staying in the castle than crying, so all seemed to be going well. He even successfully scaled the climbing wall which led to the slide and became the first kid all night to simply slide down. I was impressed. My little boy was doing quite well in his first bouncy castle and seemed to be really enjoying himself. The beer was cold, the birds were chirping, the kids were having fun, and all was well with the world.

For a while.

Then, at the instigation of his older brother, he climbed up the slide and stood at the edge of the climbing wall. Nervous, I looked sternly at him and said "Ethan, don't jump. Go back down the way you came," and surprisingly, he did just that. Then, a few minutes later, this time with no instigation from his big brother, he climbed back up the slide and stood at the edge of the climbing wall.

Again, I looked at him sternly and said, "Ethan, don't jump."

At this point it seems prudent to mention that I was outside the castle and could do nothing about what happened next.

Ethan yelled, "Atch Ow!" (Translation: Watch Out!), and proceeded to leap from the top of the climbing wall, smacking into the inflatable floor with a squeal of laughter. He scrambled back to his feet and looked at me as if to say, "Get used to it, old man," and then clamored back up the slide to the top of the climbing wall ("Atch Ow! - Wheee!") before I could get in and stop him.

I was able to grab him after his second solo jump and make sure that he was ok. He seemed to be fine and considering that the bouncy castle was designed to allow such things, I let him stay in to continue jumping. After a few more jumps, the host, Bob, asked that either we get him out of there or I sign a piece of paper exempting him from legal action should something happen to Ethan. Bob is a bit of a cautious soul, so I pulled Ethan out and that was the end of his little jumping expedition.

He still enjoys jumping, and every now and then while he is in the living room and I am doing the dishes or otherwise engaged in the kitchen, I'll hear "Atch Ow!" followed by the thump of his landing after his latest leap from the couch. I'll have to keep the ladder locked up so I don't find him on the roof when he is Ryan's age. Despite the fact that I did it when I was younger, the last thing I want to see is Ethan on the roof with a sheet ready to "parachute" into the bushes.