You've Come a Long Way, Baby...

This morning we went to the playground where young Thumper met the "Scabby Guttersnipes" (as anniemcq called them), and I thought about my former reticence at telling those kids not to touch him. I thought, too, of our trip to the mall playground earlier this week, when a young lady put her hand flat on his face and began to forcibly eject him from the rocket ship. I said, "Don't push him, please!" firmly enough to make her jump, and I held eye contact long enough to make her nervously look away and lamely say, perhaps by way of explanation, "I'm a big girl." I even smiled into the wordless glare of her mother. And it occurred to me that Thumper's not the only one who's grown and changed over the last year.