Emma loves water, she always has. As an infant, we use to bathe her in the kitchen sink in one of those plastic tubs they make specifically for babies. She loved it. Later she took baths in the big tub, almost always insisting on lots of bubbles. Now Emma takes showers. But she pursues her love of water by going to her favorite playgrounds, all of which have water features: the water park near the West Side Highway, Madison Square Park with the giant rotating sprinklers, the 59th Street park just south of the “big carousel”. Because New York (unlike say, Southern California where there is really only one climate, warm) has seasons, the water is shut off at some point in the fall and turned back on sometime around or near Memorial Day weekend, or at least that’s what I always thought and had been told by a couple of parks and recreation employees. Upon further research however, this is incorrect. The water is turned on when the temperature climbs to 85 degrees, though some parks will turn the water on when it’s above 80.
“Go to water park,” Emma suggested a few weeks ago.
“No, Em. It’s not open yet.”
“Open next weekend,” Emma said.
“No. Not next weekend, in a couple of weeks. They’ll turn the water on over Memorial Day Weekend,” we told her, not realizing we were incorrect.
Last weekend, Emma said, “Turn water on next weekend, Memorial Day weekend?”
“Yeah, Em. That’s right. Next weekend we can go to the water park.”
Which is exactly what we are planning to do as it is suppose to be in the 80’s and beautiful!
Emma at the Glenwood Pool in Colorado this past March. (During a weirdly warm spring day)
Em jumping into the lake at her summer camp last year.
Emma running through the sprinklers at Granma’s house
For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism and her adventures with her dad in various water parks, go to: www.EmmasHopeBook.com
Emma's Hope Book 