Teeter Totters and Tater Tots

Children and words can make a volatile mix!  Mispronunciations, misunderstandings, and parroting of colorful language can cause quite a stir at the most inopportune times.  They can also cause the most hilarious of circumstances as well.

One summer day, about 2 years ago, my grandma and I took my son and daughter to a large park near her home.  We took a picnic dinner and plenty of drinks so we could make a day of it.  All lathered up with sunscreen and armed with bug spray, we had a wonderful day in the sun, full of laughter and fun.  We went through the many tubes and down every slide at least a hundred times.  We swung on the swings until we were dizzy.  And then we decided to take a walk to explore more of the park.

There was a baseball field, tennis courts, pavilions, basketball hoops, and even a swimming pool.  Then we came to another part that had even older playground equipment.  In the middle of this playground area was a cross piece on four giant springs.  On each end of the cross piece, there was a metal saddle attached.  The kids and I were fascinated because we had never seen anything quite like it before.

My grandma suggested, “Let’s go on this teeter totter thing.  It looks like fun!”

Since there were four seats, we all got on board and wobbled around for a while.  It was actually a lot of fun, although with metal seats, it was certainly lacking in comfort.  As the sun started sinking, we packed all of our gear and set off for home.

That night, as I was getting my kids ready for bed, my mom called.  We talked a little and I told her about the fun time we all had at the park.  My son asked to talk, too, so I put him on the phone.  He immediately squealed, “Guess what, Grandma?  We road on tater tots ALL day.  They were so springy!”

He immediately handed the phone back to me as he ran off to find his teddy bear, leaving me to deal with the images of giant bouncing tater tots springing through my mother’s mind!