Brilliant … But Bouncy

That Girl is Checking Out My Baby!

The family went camping this weekend – urban camping, I call it, with a chlorinated pool and not many hiking trails. Within the first hour, Shane and I went to a playground – a great one, with a fast slide, plenty of swings and a real merry-go-round.

“That’s not a real merry-go-round,” Shane told me. “Real ones have horses.”

“No,” I assured him. “Real ones are made of wood and you have to hang on tight while I push you!”

There aren’t any merry-go-rounds without horses in our area, so Shane had never seen one. And since I’d driven to Pennsylvania when Dylan was young, just to push him on a real merry-go-round, it had been a very long time since I’d pushed one, as well. Pushing a merry-go-round is utterly exhausting.

Anyway, while we were there, a girl who looked to be about Shane’s age, maybe slightly older, popped out of her camper and walked quickly down the hill to the playground. I noticed that while she walked, she never took her eyes off of Shane. Then she sat on a swing and stared at him. When she caught me looking at her, she halfway smiled and averted her eyes.

That girl is checking out my baby! I thought. Being female myself – and the kind who always admired her conquests from afar – I recognized the behavior immediately.

Shane was utterly oblivious.

Later, in the pool, I told him what had happened.

“I’m not sure if you’re old enough to understand this,” I said. “But when we were at the playground, there was a girl who came rushing out of her camper as soon as we got there. She was really looking at you. She sat on the swings and just stared. Do you know what I mean?”

“I guess,” he said.

“I think she thought you were really cute,” I said. “You are really cute, of course. And she was kind of checking you out.”

There was a long pause. I wasn’t sure if he understood the ramifications of what had happened. Maybe he had questions about why a girl would do this, or wondered about crushes. Maybe he’s shy himself, and has done this sort of thing before. Maybe he’s just overwhelmed by the whole boy-girl thing.

The silence seemed to last forever. I could almost see his brain processing the information. Finally, Shane spoke.

“Was she hot?”