Too Big

I have never had any children, at least the finless, two-legged kind. There are times that I wish my body could have produced children, but I don't dwell because I have 2 nephews and a niece that I can play with from time to time. I generally take over the child, playmate wise once I appear, ignoring any adults. My nephew is my namesake. His has the language skills of an early adolescent. He is brilliant! He exhibited his advanced language skills at a very early age. At two he pronounced words distinctly and spoke in complete sentences. Marvelous! My brother built my nephew a wooden jungle gym for his second birthday. It was equipped with a platform one could climb up to and then slide down on a slide. It had a swing and of course, monkey bars. My nephew loved it but wouldn't play in or around it. That wasn't good enough for me, I looked at him and asked if he wanted to go out and play with me. His big brown eyes widened and he nodded his head yes and ran for the door outside. Once outside, I went toward the jungle gym and he followed. 

"Aunt T, Aunt T, where are we going?" 

"To the jungle gym", I told him. 

"That's mine, Daddy made it." he exclaimed. "What are you going to do?" 

"I want to see what it looks like since your Daddy built it!" I told him.  

When we reached the jungle gym, my nephew stood by the bottom of the slide with eyes wide as he watched me climb the ladder to the platform. His face held the combination of fear and curiosity in its expression. 

"That's mine", he said. 

"I know" I replied as I sat down at the top of the slide. "I'm just checking this out."

I pushed off to go down the slide. The laws of inertia and gravity did not interact the way they should have, I was thinking, as I s-l-o-w-l-y made my way down the slide with my hips just barely touching the sides of the slide. My nephew solemnly watched as I inched down the slide to it's end. He looked me dead in the eyes and said "You too big for this." 

I said, "You think so? Well, I'm going again."

He ran toward the ladder and climbed up to the platform and flatly told me "No, you too big for this."

I had to give the child a break. I never again threatened the steadfastness of his jungle gym, but he did start using it that day!