Friday Five: Child's Play Edition

Kathrynzj writes: "While traveling with my 4 year old we were both pleased to find a HUGE indoor playground. Now he can maneuver himself around those things no problem but I have found myself at the top level of what amounts to a glorified hamster tube more than once either rescuing an article of clothing or The Boy himself. There was a small part of me saddened to find that I no longer had the convenient excuse to be a kid and go up in the playground, but mostly my aging knees and back were quite happy to skip the experience.Maybe you are better at it than me, but my first-born, responsible demeanor rarely lets up enough for me to do frivolous silly things – like playing on playgrounds – without a good reason. My friend will stand up in a crowded restaurant and serenade me with an operatic rendition of Happy Birthday. My sister is very good at grabbing the joy in the moment. I seem to need a child to bring it out in me and even then… it takes a lot.Today’s Friday Five celebrates the spontaneous child in all of us… or at least the one that we admire in someone else:"

1) On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being "I can’t do this now, I am about to jump into a pit of plastic balls at the mini-mall;" and 1 being "I can’t do this now until I can get all of the fonts on my blog to match" – where are you? I am a newly hatched five and proud of it! Oh the joy of falling in love with someone who is unabashedly a twelve year old! Since meeting R and becoming more and more his partner in life (and crime!) lots and lots of little tight and squidgy places in me are unwinding. I was preparing myself for this I think, as last summer I had written a post or two about my process of finally learning to play, by going out with Soul Sister A and sticking my head in dead trees and getting bit by mysterious bugs while hurling myself into tall grass while geocaching. And learning to ride a bike again, and allowing myself to be silly and do things that had no apparent redeeming social value. But my playfulness quotient is rising daily. Twice this week I have caught myself going "wheeeeee" as I cruised off down the street on my (second) new bike of the year (Story in a later post). I find myself giggling often, and laughing to the point of "I can't breathe" on a regular basis just over sheer silly stuff. There is a new willingness in me to try things, take chances. I was looking at shore excursions for our dream honeymoon cruise, and I realized that there was very little there that I wouldn't consider. A far cry from the past uptight scaredey girl I used to be! Much more fun this way, indeed!

2) What is the silliest/most childlike thing you have done as an adult? Well, since I am relatively new to silly and childlike, I don't have a really big repertoire here to call on. Maybe I'll have to take a poll and see if I can fill this one in later.

3) Any regrets? That I didn't stop being so serious and start playing sooner.

4) What is the silliest thing you have ever seen another adult do on purpose? I can't thing of one specific thing, but I'm sure it had something to do with either alcohol or reality TV shows.

5) What is something you wish you did when you had the chance? I had the chance to parasail in Mexico one of the times when I was there, but fear held me back. I'm hoping that on our planned trip there next year that will be one of the things I'll get to do.

BONUS: For our ‘I told you so’ sides – what thing did you skip doing and you’re really glad you did! Jello shots.