He was dancing a grid pattern through the balls with his friends, instead of leaping and darting in every which direction and potentially missing me in the process.
They found me on the next pass, my unicorn in the lead. I waited until he was about to bounce on me to pop up in front of him with a great big bear roar and my arms thrown wide, balls flying everywhere in a seriously epic jump scare that made all four littles leap backwards, scream, then flee to all corners of the ball pit.
I couldn’t play favorites and chase just my little unicorn, that wouldn’t be fair. So, I chased the little girl in the Strawberry Shortcake crop top and shorts, then pivoted to slog through the balls, arms still raised, hands curled like massive bear paws,while I growled and snarled and lifted my feet as high as I could to plod through the balls like I was a big, menacing beast. Their squeals and laughter were better than any applause I’d ever received for a song, especially after I finished chasing the little in the blue shorts and T-shirt, who didn’t seem to have a theme to his attire, and turned my attention towards my grinning unicorn.
Not only did he wave at me, but he pranced when he ran away, at least until he sent himself tumbling forward into the balls again. Growling louder now and making all the snapping, nom, nom sounds to make it appear he was being eaten, I wrapped myself around him and tickled him until all his kicking and flailing sent several balls into the air.
“The bear got me!” Payden squealed. “The big old Daddy bear got me!”
He was laughing too hard to ever make anyone think he’d really met his demise at the hands of a big old grizzly bear, but it was a sound I’d never get tired of hearing.
I was just setting him back on his feet when the little in blue went streaking past us, calling out to his Daddy, who I spotted seated on the edge of the ball pit, shoes removed. “Daddy, Daddy, are you going to play with me?”
“I am Sprite,” he replied. “Daddy is done with work for the day. In fact, I think Daddy is done with work for the whole trip.”
“Yay!” His boy hurled himself into his arms when he hopped into the ball pit, then the man did something that shocked me to my core when he mouthed.Thank you.
Guess maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing to join in and have fun with my boy after all, especially when the next song came on. Okay, seriously, Elmo Slide in a ball pit should have been on my bucket list! We waved our arms, hopped to the left, and followed in every direction that Muppet gave us all the way to the end,when Payden and I collapsed into an exhausted heap in the balls, along with a few of the others.
He looked flushed too.
Time to slide into Daddy mode.
I slid my fingers beneath his hood and felt that his hair was damp, so I gently pushed the hood off and took his hand, leading him to the edge of the ball pit, even as the little girl called out to him not to go.
“Let’s get you something to drink," I said after we’d climbed the ladder out of the pit.
It was always good to see tubs of bottled drinks on ice in each of the activity rooms, especially when there was water as well as juice. Juice might taste better going down, but that sugar will make you dehydrate quicker than shit when you’re playing, especially on a hot afternoon. I didn’t want him passing out on me the way I’d done on stage, so I snagged him a water. I took the cap off before I handed it to him, glad to see he’d found a place to sit.
“Sip it, don’t guzzle,” I said. “I think it might be time for a cool shower and something to eat.”
“Can we go to the pizza party?” he asked. “There was one on the schedule. It says we get to have whatever toppings we want on our pizzas and that there will be all kinds of treats to go with it and movies on the flat screen too.”
“Well, then we absolutely cannot miss such a grand affair, can we?” I replied.
“Nope,” he said, solemnly shaking his head before he went back to sipping.
He finished the bottle, though, and placed it in the recycling container before waving to his new friends.
“Awe,” the little boy in blue whined. “Do you have to go?”
“Yeah, I got too hot, but we’re going to the pizza party later.”
“Oh, we’re going to the pizza party too, right, Daddy?”
“Sure are, Sprite.”
“We’ll see you there, we can sit together!” the little in blue said.
“We’ll save you seats if we get their first,” Payden declared.
“Yay! We will too.”
With one last wave, we were on our way, Payden moving with far less bounce in his walk after how much playing he’d done in the ball pit. If a cool shower didn’t perk him up, I might have to insist he nap for an hour before heading to the pizza party because he looked just about bounced out.
“That was so much fun,” he declared as we made our way back to our car. “You scared the fluff out of me when you popped up out of the balls.”
“Rawr!” I growled, making him eep and leap away.
