we live in the kind of city where you can go to the playground on a warm and sunny saturday afternoon only to find it entirely devoid of laughing, playing children.

where, oh where, have all the toddlers gone?

oh well, odin and i had fun, even if i never did get him to crawl through the tunnel. he sure did have fun watching me trying to entice him to the other side.

the emptiest playground has the tallest and steepest hill that odin has ever climbed.

and we climbed up, up, up and ran down, down, down the hill over and over and over with hardly a fall, which is such a stupendous accomplishment.

i offered him my hand the first time we were going down the hill, but he said, “nope.” and started running, never looking back.

just as we were about to run down The Steepest Hill for the umpteenth time some Big Kids arrived and started playing basketball. and we all know how much odin loves basketball. so he raced down the hill even quicker than usual and hung back for a bit while he sized them up, before getting his dodgeball and offering to play with them.

they weren’t too keen on the idea, but i thought it was mighty brave of him to ask.

the emptiest playground must not always be empty since we happened upon an abandoned football while running across the football field.

i would have liked to have let him play with it, but i was taught that american sports are played with the hands and using your feet is for commies. so i scolded him and told him we’d learn about real football later. joking!