Let's Go Fly a Kite

You know it's a bad day when you know for certain that you are going to either yell or be yelled at. So it was for James on Monday morning. So a mental health day was appointed (after getting completely dressed, leaving and catching the bus to drop off Harry too.

It was a beautiful day, and pottering around at home with a deliciously happy Ted was pretty fun as it was. But by about 1pm for some reason Ted had become focused on the idea of a kite. And I found the kite we had in our pantry, which was sans string, so I then found some twine and Ted helped me unravel it (read: Ted helped me to strew it across the playroom floor).

After a couple of aborted (and hysterical) attempts at flying it in our (very small) backyard, I made the impromptu decision that we were to all bundle in the car right then and there to go and fly it at Sydney Park.

Ted told us where we were going - "Go fly dis at cycling park Mama". To which instruction we followed dutifully. Once there it was me carrying Ted to the top of the big hill, then it was Ted running all over the place like a loon in the wind once carried to the top (where was that energy while I was enduring cardiac exhaustion carrying him?) and then it was James with the kite. The loneliness of the focused kite flier. Ted, lost in the throes of wind running, forgot all about his interest and spent barely a minute caring about the kite flying aspect of our visit, while James valiantly worked on the finer aerodynamic issues of our kite.


Then, for a minute, there was a beautiful combination of interest from Ted, wind, and a kite in the air. Short lived as it was, we all stood below, marveling at how fifteen minutes prior we had been in our playroom, and now we were gazing into the bright blue sky on top of a hill.











And then the moment was gone, and instead, we were lazing around on the side of the hill. Doing nothing more than lying on each other. We just sat there, in relative silence, snuggling in to each other and listening to the planes, the cars, and the wind.

And what's the best part about being on a hill? Running down it, of course! Ted went full pelt down both sides of the hill over and over again, laughing at me running too, feeling the wind on my face, my arms in the air and hearing the giggles of a two year old around me.

Prescription for mental health day fulfilled.


ps - You don't need sound for that video and it's all of 18secs. I was just going to film the grass blowing around...