Five

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I decided to take Emmy to the park after school today since I was in such a good mood. I picked her up from Miss Charlotte's and took her home to get a few things before walking down the street a little ways to a park. She's advanced for her age and is now getting the hang of walking. That's a lot of work for me and I'm always worried she'll fall and break something or worse.

I don't let her go on the big structure and just put her down with the other toddlers still watching her like a hawk. When she climbs up the little stairs and gets herself ready to slide down the tiny slide I smile as she leans back and forth getting ready to go. When she finally does, she reaches the bottom within two seconds and her face drops to disappointment. I had to roll my lips into my mouth to keep from laughing at how cute she was knowing that she was going to get mad at me.

She got up from the slide and walked to the zipline like thing and sat on the edge of the platform crossing her arms, furrowing her eyebrows, and pursing her lips. "Baba." She shakes her head when I come and kneel down before her. "Baba." That's her word for bad. I again have to hold back a laugh at how cute she's being. "Dada! Dada!" Her face suddenly changes and her lip comes out as she looks at me with her big blue eyes she inherited from me. "Bibi!" That's her word for big. She points over to the tall slide on the regular play structure. Suddenly it looks ten stories tall and I don't want her on it.

"Baby it's too tall." I say playing with the fluff of hair on her head.

"Peeees." She gives me her puppy dog eyes that I can't say no to and I give in. "Yay!" She screeches as I pick her up and carry her over. The two women sitting on the bench watching their kids look at me in horror.

"Please have fun! Please have fun!" I whisper to myself as I place her at the top all by herself and go down to the bottom to catch her. "Ok baby I'm ready." I say taking a deep breath as she rocks back and forth ready for the real fun. Out of the corner of my eye I see one of the moms getting up and marching over to me.

Emmy screams getting my attention back on her as I see the smile on her face and catch her at the bottom throwing her up in the air and spinning her around. Her giggle let's me know that she's alright and that she'll probably want to do it again.

"What do you think you're doing?" The woman says marching over to me and puts her hands on her hips.

"Playing at the park." I answer simply, adjusting my hold on Emmy so I'm carrying her with one arm.

"How old is she?" She gestures to Emmy who is playing my fingers on the opposite hand I'm holding her with.

"Almost one." I answer not getting why this is relevant to why she has to know.

"She could have been seriously hurt!" She glares at me and glances over to the other mother who is now breast feeding a baby. "Eyes over here pervert!" She snaps and my eyes meet hers. I clench my jaw and bite my tongue listening to the insults she's throwing at me. I have to be the bigger person in this situation. "She's too young to go on the big play structure."

"She's fine, she had a blast." I reason, trying to keep the bitterness out of my tone.

"How old are you anyway?" She asks, changing her posture so she's crossing her arms now.

"How old are you?" I counter.

"I don't see how that's relevant." She holds her head up high acting as if she's better than me.

"Then why is my age relevant?" I couldn't hide the bitterness out of my tone this time.

Her eyes shift away thinking of a comeback before they meet mine again. "Fine, I'm thirty, you?"

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