(Father) Monkey Beast

The kids were going nuts today.  They are little basket cases if they are prevented from gong outside.  Living in the NorthWest has it's disadvantages in that area.  I would much rather have snow falling from the sky then rain dripping from my chin.  So, when it looked like it was simply very cloudy we took our chances walking to the park.  Made it!  There was only a simply structure with nothing else around it.  It was the closest park and I had never taken the children.  A 20 foot high structure that held an entanglement of ropes that came down like a pyramid.  With the kids standing next to me it felt like a lot higher and the ropes a lot smaller than when Daisy and I happened upon it a couple of weeks earlier.  Besides that, it had rained and the ropes were much more slick.  It took Beast 2.5 seconds to climb to the second tier.  I was in between STOP! and allowing him to be a boy which meant holding my breath and looking like I had just smelled bad eggs.  My stomach was turning in knots as he was almost skipping up the treacherous tower of death.  I am not kidding when I say it was 20 feet.  I used to play a lot of basketball and could touch the rim at 10.  Standing on the 10 foot high rope gave me another 10 foot high perspective. 

I was holding myself back from being the overprotective parent but the chances of Daisy asking me 20 questions left me choking on CAREFUL! I could see her asking me probing questions as we sit next to Beast's hospital bed that would leave me stuttering for answers that would never be satisfactory.  But when Beast reached the very top he said the famous last words of, "Hey Dad!! Look at this!!  I looked up and saw him standing on a rope without any hands on anything else.  My words whispered it of me.  It was like a dream where you are trying to run away from Satan but are stuck in the mud.  If I yelled he would startle and fall and if I didn't say anything then how could I answer question 2?  It was only two seconds until he leaned toward the pole and caught himself but it feel like eternity.

Beast is the child you see doing completely dangerous things and you wonder if the parents are negligent in watching their child.   I'm at the bottom of whatever apparatus he is climbing to catch him when he falls.  The thing is, he instills a bit of confidence in me because of the calm he exudes while he doing these crazy things.  Today he climbed a 30 foot rock wall, with harness of course,  but let go of one hand and leg to look around to see me.  I want him to do active things and not suppress what seems to come so natural but dear God please don't let him die before I'm gone...................please?