“What’s up?” Grant asked as Benny reached him. “I went on the big slide and it went down like this!” he exclaimed, holding up his hand and gesturing how steep the slide was.
“I don’t believe you,” Grant said sarcastically, smiling at his son. “That steep?”
Benny looked at him with wide eyes. “Yes! Ira did it too!”
Wells frowned at that, looking like he knew Ira wouldn’t usually go for a slide like that.
He looked around to see if he could see Ira anywhere, then he turned to look at Benny.
“Where is Ira?”
“I don’t know,” Benny shrugged.
“We told you to stay together and not run away from each other, Benny,” Grant said, sighing and shooting Wells an apologetic look.
Benny was the wild one in the friendship, that’s for sure.
Wells got up and let go of my hand. “I’ll go see if I can find him,” he said, and I immediately got up to go with him and help while Grant continued to explain the rules to Benny again.
“I’m sure he’s okay,” I told him, keeping my voice soft and calm.
“Yeah, but I hate knowing he’s wandering around here somewhere all by himself.”
Totally understandable.
We walked past the slides and monkey bars, checking every single corner until we stopped by an archway with stickers of all kinds of fictional characters around it.
Inside, there was a room with tables and chairs for kids to sit at and play with Legos and playdough, and in the far left corner, there was Ira sitting all by himself with his back turned to us.
A relieved sigh escaped Wells, and after smiling up at him, we walked toward Ira to check on him.
“Hey, buddy. What are you doing here all by yourself?” Wells asked, squatting down to be closer to him.
Ira turned his head, and after taking one look at him, it was clear that he had been crying.
“Oh, bud. What happened?”
Wells pulled him into his arms and Ira let go of the two little Lego figures to hug his dad.
I watched Wells rub Ira’s back to comfort him, and although he still looked sad, he didn’t cry again.
“Benny said you went on the big slide. Is that why you’re sad? Did it scare you a little?” he asked.
Ira nodded and pouted, picking at Wells’s sweatshirt with his little fingers.
“You know you don’t have to go on things that you aren’t sure about, hm?” He put both hands on Ira’s waist to make him step back and look into his eyes. “But I’m proud of you for trying and sliding down the slide. That’s very brave of you, Ira.”
I loved the way Wells talked to him.
So gentle and kind, not too harsh but still in a way that would make Ira listen.
“It was the green slide,” Ira told him.
“Wanna show me which one and then we can go drink and eat something?” Wells suggested.
“Yes, please!”
“All right, come here.” He picked him up to carry him, and before we started walking, Ira smiled at me sweetly.
“It’s a fun place, huh? There’s so much to see here,” I said, rubbing his arm.
“I saw a dinosaur!” he announced, the sadness in his eyes gone already.
“You did? Was it big?” I asked enthusiastically.
“That big!” He held his hand above Wells’s head to show how tall the dinosaur was, and we chuckled at his wide-eyed expression.
We walked out of the Lego area and walked past the dinosaur, then the green slide he went down on.
“You can be so proud of yourself for sliding down there, Ira. You’ve been very brave,” Wells told him, kissing his cheek.
“But I was sad,” he replied, pouting again and looking at his dad.
“And that’s okay. But after you feel sad, you can feel happy for what you’ve done. Next time, don’t cry but smile and say I did it! to yourself.”
Ira thought about it for a while, then he nodded and threw his fist in the air. “I did it!”
Wells grinned and nodded. “Yeah, you did! You can do anything and don’t let anyone tell you any differently, okay? And remember that it’s okay to say no to things if you’re unsure about them.”
“Okay.”
Pleased with Ira’s response, we walked back to the table to sit down with Grant and Benny again, and while Ira drank his water, we looked at the menu to see if there was anything that sounded good.
Wells checked Ira’s pump to figure out if he could eat something sugary.
Since he had been running around the past hour, I was positive