Prairie Fields Playground

One of the hard conversations I have with myself over a potential move to California is the anxiety that X-man will feel about the relocation. He already has some issues with transitions at school -- and, well, this is a major life transition. So, we talk about it as a family from time to time, but we don't talk about it as if it's a foregone conclusion, because let's face it. If we don't sell our house, we could be here for years... It's just the way it is, and just because it takes me years to be comfortable with a subject doesn't not mean that everyone needs that much time to warm up to a concept and organize their lives for it.

But now that I've got my Sunshine Pills we're putting "sunny" in the plus category not as an "extra bonus" but as a "health care" positive about moving. :-)

When we lived in Prairie Fields, a friend of mine worked for the village and built the Prairie Fields Playground. He's a very nice man. And he did a stellar job. I didn't know him then, but in our house, we celebrate that park and the people who built it every day. I always said that I saw no point in putting a jungle gym in the yard when we can just walk to a giant park.

X-man has grown up at that park. He learned to cruise in the toddler area at that park. It was his first slide and his first outdoor swing. These are the memories I'll always have of Savoy.

A couple weeks ago when we had a day of nice weather, X-man and I walked over to the park for our first visit in 2012. We played our usual "fireman" pretend play game. We climbed the climbing wall and looked out over the construction that will be Carrie Busey in the fall. We watched kite flyers in the soccer field and visited with some neighbors. And I wonder if it'll be this way in California. I wonder if it'll feel so comfortable, so much like home. 

I hope so.