We were at the dinosaur pool in the middle of a warmish late August afternoon, our week-long vacation at its tipping point. It was pretty much as advertized - a large, pink dinosaur with a slide surmounting its middle was in the center of the pool, with various non-dino attractions at the edges. The water was a foot deep, perfect for a five year old who loves the water but has demonstrated in swimming lessons a tendency to sink rather than float.

The boy was enjoying the pool quite a bit, going down the slide as often as possible while exploring the other objects in turn (and getting told off more than once for climbing on the top of a blue tube that seemed tailor-made for climbing on). And every once in a while, he'd come out so I could towel off his face.

And each time he came out, he'd ask to go on one of the water rides that flanked the dino pool. One was a tandem ride whose height restriction would prevent him from riding. The other was a fairly high waterslide, built for speed more than turns, that he was just a little too short for, but could potentially buffalo his way onto.

Each time, though, I told him that he couldn't go on the rides, that he was just a bit too short, and wasn't he having fun in the dino pool? He considered this each time, and concluded each time that he was in fact having fun in the dino pool, and off he'd go.

At some point in this repeated process, I told him that the next time we came back he'd be tall enough to ride the other rides. This is almost certainly true; we've never vacationed in this part of the world (western New York) before, and it was unlikely we'd be back for at least a year, probably more. By that time he'd be plenty tall to ride, and if our return is farther down the road he may even be old enough to negotiate the rides on his own.

He ran off again, happy in the thought of future rides. While I thought of the future, his growing up and the challenges he'll face in school, developing friendships, and so on.  I thought about me, being older, eventually not having kids to take on vacation. And I thought that, as much as he wanted to go on the big rides, I would be happy with him staying in the dino pool for a little while longer.