Pushing the swing higher

We are swinging very high these days. It was only at the beginning of this summer that the Boy graduated from the bucket-with-leg-holes that is the playground Baby Swing to to the classic strip of rubber on chains: the Big Kid Swing.

So far no serious mishaps have occurred as I nervously indulge his gleeful demands of "Higher! Higher!" My own admonitions of "Hold on tight!" are only partly acknowledged as he shimmies his hips, lurching the swing about as it hurtles through its sweeping arc.

As nerve-fraying as his excited nonchalance is for me as a parent, as a former child it is impossible not to share in his exhilaration and wonder how long it will be before he is ready for the rigors of leg-pumping and the breath-taking rush of his first underdog.