Month 13: Vampires and Super Fast Slides

So maybe it wasn't a REAL vampire, but Daniel has officially been bitten. Twice. By a kid in his new classroom. My sweet little man - with teeth marks on his skin.

The interesting part about this whole scenario is actually the parental component - Fernando and I react in completely opposite ways to the biting. A few of my friends at work have young boys who have gone through the biting phase - both being bitten and being the biter. (Say that ten times fast.) So in a way, I halfway expected something like this to happen soon. While I'm not thrilled that he was bitten, I'm just glad he wasn't the biter.

Fernando had an entirely different take on the situation. His protective claws came out - in fact, I haven't seen him this angry in a long time. Either he's been watching too much Law and Order, or it's a result from having two younger sisters and looking out for them their whole life. After we were told about the first biting incident, Ferni had to take a long walk and a longer drive to cool off. To protect the family's privacy, we weren't told which child did the biting, and I'm glad. I'm nervous as to what might have happened to the child. Or the parents. (Or the parents' car).

He finally walked back in my office, and simply said, "We better never have a girl" and walked out. It's true - if he's this protective with a son, I cannot imagine what a sweet little girl would do to his nerves.

In happier news, we have been frequenting the local parks nearly every evening. The weather is beautiful, the fresh air is welcome (albeit packed full of allergens and pollution, thank you Phoenix), and the exercise is just enough to get Daniel good and tired (and dirty) before his nighttime bath. The slides are particularly fun, and with Daniel sitting between our legs, some of the slides go breathtakingly fast. Either that or I'm just getting older.

Something about a trip to the park is relaxing to all of us, taking our mind off work stress, and re-focusing us on the important stuff - each other. Sometimes we take balls and toys, sometimes we take dinner and eat in the grass or grill out, and sometimes, like tonight, we just roll up our sleeves and get dirty, playing in the sand and rocks.

I hope we never getting too busy or grown up to stop taking trips to the park.