One of the biggest battles I’m currently waging is the one to keep things out of the kids’ mouths. Both boys love to chew on things – fingers, shirts, dog toys… Okay, maybe not that last one, but it’s almost that bad. It’s driving me absolutely crazy.

Yesterday, we went down to see Mr. Richard perform at a park. He was great, as always. Afterwards, the kids and I went to play on the playground while their momma gossiped with the adults.

A crowded playground with me flying solo for both boys means that I don’t get much playtime. With the crowd of strangers, I have to keep a watchful eye on both kids. Since they rarely want to play on the same parts of the playground, I either end up standing back and watching or running back and forth.

At one point, I caught the three year old climbing the slide while chewing voraciously on his collar. I stepped up quickly. “Out of your mouth!”

He spit out the shirt. “Daddy,” he said. “I want some privacy.”

Um, okay?

I backed away and circled around to see what was going on. As soon as I was out of sight, he put his shirt back in his mouth, and then flipped over on the slide so he could go down head first on his back.

I walked quickly over so I was there when he crashed off the bottom of the slide. He grinned at me, pulled the shirt out of his mouth, and then ran over to the ladder.

Score one for privacy.