Big Boy Swing

This morning we went to the park on our way to the shops.  CyclopsJnr fell in with two much bigger boys who inspired him to experiment with new skills.  

Up to now he has only succeeded on toddler swings with a sit-in seat.  Today watching the big boys inspired him to have another go at ordinary swings, and he did pretty well.  You can see the shadow of one of the big boys on the next swing - something CyclopsJnr also tried and did surprisingly well at.

He was trying really hard to keep up with their running, climbing and general adventuring and considering he was 5 years younger he did really well.  He even started climbing the big rope structure.  The only time it went a bit wrong was on the swing when I said "if you swing your legs you can make it go without me pushing".

He proceeded to kick vigorously but in an uncoordinated manner, a bit like an Irish dancer being electrocuted mid performance.  He shoogled a little but didn't swing, and we all though he was hilarious and laughed at him a lot.  He looked a tiny bit crestfallen - he was doing his best.

After one of the bigger boys fell in a puddle I was able to identify their grandparents who were supervising (from the wincing mostly).  I thanked the boys for playing nicely with CyclopsJnr when we left, but I also made a point of thanking the grandparents and saying I hoped CyclopsJnr would grow up to be a really nice boy like they were.  I thought they (especially the woman) were going to combust with grandparently pride!  Quite right too - they were lovely boys and they made CyclopsJnr's day.