… and keep all your teeth.
So far.
The kid turned 7 today and I was just as excited for her birthday as she was.
I had spent the past few weeks cobbling together an old fashioned wooden pogo stick, using springs, dowels, glue, and gumption.
The first one I made, I admit, was pretty bad. Like something even the Little Rascals would have recoiled from.
“No thanks, man. We’ll press our luck with those shifty street urchins instead.”
It lasted all of one half-bounce before splintering into a million shards and leaving me on my ass. Definitely not the birthday joy I was looking for.
“Hey, it’s your birthday! Here is something that will probably require a trip to the ER and maybe some stitches. Anyway, enjoy!”
So for the next one, after a few tweaks, I decided to just keep my weight off it altogether and hope it would withstand the vigorous jumping of a 50-pound 7-year-old hopped up on a specially requested birthday breakfast treat of Lucky Charms.
In other words, it would be the ultimate test.
And it worked!
It worked really, really well!
Well, sort of …
It’s difficult to pogo stick in footie pajamas apparently.
But after a quick change into play clothes and real shoes, she got the hang of it pretty quickly.
Three bounces in a row was all she could muster in the beginning, and I don’t think she quite believed me when I told her that people spent their entire childhoods trying to reach 1,000 in a row.
Eventually she had to take a break and get ready for school.
On the way, she spoke up from the back seat.
“Daddy,” she began, “Daddy, I just want you to know … I don’t think Lucky Charms are good for breakfast.”
And then she fell asleep.
