First Flight, Of Sorts

Annalee and I made a trip to Zilker Park with the express intention of putting a kite in flight. The wind was not too terrific on the hillside I found, so, though I got our kite up in the air for a minute or so on my own (with Annalee rooting me on), not even my running would keep it airborne. What that meant, I'm happy to report, was that in order to make a more realistic attempt to fly our red-white-and-black vinyl kite we would need two people on the team (and not just in name). I put the green string handle in Annalee's right hand and ran to hold the kite until a gust came. She held the plastic handle firmly, and when I released the kite it soared 75 feet into the sky in about two seconds. Annalee was tugging rhythmically at the string as though she had been flying kites for years. Before very long, maybe a minute and a half, the kite tumbled again to earth. We repeated the experiment several times, and had success several times. Seeing the look on the face of a not-quite-two-year-old girl as she controls a flying apparatus high in the air above her is an experience I can wholeheartedly recommend.