In the Next Moment...

We're having some pretty days here so we took some time just to go to the park and hang out. After this picture was taken, Zack shimmied over this limb to the higher section at the upper right of the photo. He hung there for a good long while until I decided he must be stuck and headed over to see if he'd like some help getting down. I was going to be discreet and not embarrass him in front of the bigger boy who had climbed another part of the same tree, really I was!

But when I was still fifteen feet away, he just jumped. I don't think this photo conveys how high it really was.  He landed on his feet but the impact of the landing crumpled him into a little accordion fold of a boy.  I gasped out loud and another mother gave a short little shriek.  Then he popped up with a mouthful of dirt, bark embedded into his forehead, and big smile.  I picked the bark out of his skin, which left a little puncture underneath, he spit out the dirt and the other mother offered me a defibrillator for myself. 

We've since set some firm guidelines on heights too high for jumping.