The Tree

Many families have swing sets, playhouses, or trampolines.  We have . . . the tree.

Our tree came with the house, and it is one of the few plants we have that survived the yard overhaul.

It is my kids favorite place to play.  They each even have their "own branch".

Morgan has been begging for the longest time to climb the tree.  Hubby will pick him up and put him in the tree, but my rule has always been- if you are not old enough to climb the tree, you are not old enough to be in the tree.

Because Morgan could not climb the tree, once hubby put him up there, he would not come down.  He would often bargain with people-

"Allen, will you get me a drink."

"No, get down and get yourself a drink."

"If I get down and get myself a drink, will you help me get back up?"

He always had to have a strategy to get back into the tree.

One day he came and asked me if I would put him in the tree.  I reminded him of my rule.  He went outside, and then came back in 30 seconds later to tell me he could now climb the tree.  Of course, I had to watch him to see if it was true, and sure enough, he had no problem climbing right up.

All the kids had been trying to teach him how to climb the tree for a while, and he finally realized that their method was not the one for him.  As soon as he decided to figure it out on his own, he could scale the tree very quickly.

I'm glad my kids have had so much fun this summer in their tree.  And although I do worry about them when they are out there climbing around like monkeys, it is so much fun to see them out there playing together.  It is fun to have Morgan finally be able to join in with them.  He is finally becoming one of the big kids.