A tale of young love, heartbreak, and slides.

So I took Madeline to the park this afternoon. Because I am an awesomely cool mom like that. She was enjoying sliding and swinging and trying to fall off things. Then she found a little step to sit down and rest. And along comes a boy. A little bit older than Madeline. And of course Madeline started smiling and tossing her head and the boy had no choice but to sit down next to her and chat. I was a little nervous, because you could tell he had that bad boy look, but at some point you've got to let her make her own bad choices, right? So they flirted a while and talked and chased each other around the playground.

About ten minutes later, Madeline returned to the step and sat down. And started smiling and looking around and patting the seat next to her. After a very long time (about 45 seconds) she decided her boyfriend wasn't coming back, so she stood up to run off- and lo and behold, there came the boy around the corner. So she sat back down and batted her eyes and patted the seat next to her again. And the boy was putty in her hands.

Unfortunately, Madeline hasn't had enough world experience to know that boys like that will totally burn you. Their puppy dog love lasted about ten minutes before the boy started getting abusive. He'd follow Madeline around, cutting her off when she went to climb on things, and pushing her away from the places she wanted to go. When he made my little girl cry, I gave that boy a talking to and sent him packing. Poor Madeline.

But, there is a happy ending to this story. A little sadder and a little wiser, Madeline returned to her step to contemplate life. And after a few minutes, she was joined by a new boy. A nice, clean cut, mature fellow this time. He sat down and started talking to her. She was a little bit wary, as might be expected considering her recent breakup. But she quickly warmed up, and they had quite the time chatting. While bad boy #1 sulked a few feet away by the slide because he wasn't the one admiring Madeline's princess shirt and holding her hand. He contemplated throwing some wood chips at the happy couple, but I was keeping an eye on the little punk and gave him a death glare until he dropped them and ran away. And Madeline was blissfully happy with her new boyfriend. (Until they had to sorrowfully part so that Madeline could go take care of her doll. Single motherhood can be so rough on your love life.)