Tunnel of Love: That's not a word

She hears him before she sees him.

Her long golden Rapunzel mane dances as she jauntily steps towards him, a sweet smile set upon her face as she takes him by the hand. I don't hear any words being exchanged between them, just knowing looks and away they walk into the sunset, the sunset being the playgym at school. My heart flutters and loses beats, the feeling of summer love and it merges with a little moment of feeling broken hearted that he's found another love.

I say another love, but in truth you see there's Miss A, and Miss other A, and Miss L and Miss M and I think he understands there's a little difference between these little Misses and the little Mr Men.

Reuben is dropped off and barely a glance is sent in my direction. "Callum's school", cries Callum from the backseat and we're off again.

In the great open playground under the towering pines, those that blessedly still remain, sits the UCLA schoolground. In summer, our parent and me time is to be spent outside and whilst last week was themed for water play, this week is all about the arts. Callum douses himself and a friend in blue-green shades, then we sit in the sandpit and watch the sandmill spin, the cool grains filtering through our feet. Circle time brings the cuckoo clock song for Callum and he's off with a kiss and a hug until it's time for lunch which I've forgotten so hastily gather a tasty snack from Whole Foods for him which of course he doesn't eat.

This evening, we venture to yet another playground in the vast area that was once all marshland but has now been redeveloped with mixed use, commercial interspersed with fashionable apartments and exclusive townhouses, a new school which has now grown beyond the level of its foundations, beach volleyball and basketball courts, soccer pitches and several parks. One of my favorite locations of late, the tall grasses and sultry weeds have been cleared as I feared they would, so we turned to the other direction, walking through the newly planted trails, the waterlillies establishing themselves in their new surroundings, the ducks smiling at the fresh waters, and stumble upon the new amphitheater where they will soon have movie nights under the stars, "Shakespeare by the sea" and picnic concerts. We arrive at a new playground, this more surreal than the rest, more Teletubbies-like, with fake rolling hills the kids can run up and down and upon which I aim to teach Reuben to learn forward not back and which is a challenge for him due to his proprioceptive awareness. The sandpits, the concrete tunnels, the climbing bars. Los Angeles today is going through a huge transformation, revitalization, creating new and accessible parks at every turn with state of the art technology and research applied to cater to kids of all abilities. The security guard, omnipresent, rides around repeatedly on his Segway. Reuben has disappeared from me and I find him nestled here in the concrete tunnel. The boys listen to their voices resounding and Reuben's voice sweetly protrudes from it saying "That's not a word" as he brushes off the newly marked graffiti inside with words he doesn't recognize. I want to remember that moment and will need to crawl inside another day to read the words that aren't apparently words. I can hardly wait for next week's events under the stars.

Callum hastily attacks Reuben's hair with the brush he finds in my bag. Well, there are ladies in store tomorrow...

Better large, yep for sure.