I'm Fine

Part 2: Chapter 29

"Do you need help?" I asked her as she hung from the monkey bars. Her little arms couldn't quite reach the other bar so she just hung, swinging her legs. She nodded and I lifted her from bar to bar until we got to the end. She then went over to the rock wall and climbed her way to the top of the platform.

"Look mommy," she said struggling over the last rock. When she stood, she made a beeline for the biggest slide. She didn't want to ride down the smaller one, no, she had to do the bigger one.

I stood at the bottom of the slide and watched as she slid down uncontrollably. I tried not to laugh as she basically flew into my arms. I thought she was going to start crying, but her little adventurous ass started laughing.

"Maybe the smaller slide next time." She only nodded. I sat her back down on her feet and she stumbled a bit trying to get her footing. I snorted way too loud at her goofiness. She was indeed in a really good mood today. Her confidence just radiates when she's in a comfortable environment.

"Are you hungry yet?" I asked her.

"Yes."

This weekend we were just chilling since last weekend we took a mini road trip. Between work and Royce going to school, we don't get as much girl time, so I planned a picnic for us today. We walked further down the way, away from the playground. I found a good spot under some shade and I placed down a thick blanket followed by a towel. Thankfully, there weren't many bugs or flies.

We took our shoes off and sat on the blanket. I placed all of the food spread out on the towel in front of us. Royce's eyes were big as she eyed the food. I woke up hella early this morning just to make all of it, so she better like it.

"Let me see your hands." She held her hands out to me as I dug in the bag for some wet wipes and hand sanitizer. I cleaned both of our hands and started opening containers.

"What do you want?"

"I want...I want a sandwich."

"What else?"

"Strawberry."

I put her food on a napkin in front of her and she dug in. I had a sandwich myself, some grapes, a small bag of lays, and I poured myself some wine. We just sat and ate for a while before I started asking her questions about her birthday. I still didn't have anything planned yet.

"What do you wanna do for your birthday?"

"The park."

"The park? We can do that any day. It has to be something cool. I got something in mind, but I wanna know what you want to do."

She was at a loss for words. I laughed at how confused she looked. I guess that was a lot to ask of a four almost five year old.

"Do you want me to just surprise you?" She nodded eagerly.

"Okay, that's fine." She continued eating as I watched her. I grabbed two homemade chocolate chip cookies and handed her one. I munched on a few of them as I scrolled on my phone.

"Hello," I said answering my phone. There was static on the other end.

"Hellooooo." Still no answer. I hung up.

"Do you want to go back to the playground?"

"Yes!"

"Okay, finish eating." She finished eating and she helped me repack everything. I dusted off the blanket and folded it back up before stuffing it in the duffle bag that I carried everything in.