OK, the title and sub title pretty much say it all. I have this intermittent problem with trashing the house and not caring. Now that springtime is definitely here -- Can you say 75 degrees today in North Dakota with NO BUGS in the air?! -- I'm so outta this messy house.
In an uncharacteristic way, our whole family left the house at 6:45am and didn't return until 9pm. That's pretty much record-breaking for our household to be unoccupied for such a stretch of time. Dropped the hubby off at work. I didn't even let my son take a nap today because the weather was just too freaking gorgeous to sleep through. First we went to Wal*Mart to buy some sand toys for 2.8-year-old Michael. "You started the day at Wal*Mart?" you may ask? Yes. There's not much else to do that early in the morning. And if there is anything constructive to do at 7am, I don't know what it is because we don't usually see that time of day.
When the pool opened at 9am we went swimming, then to the park where Michael got full use of his new plastic gardening tools. Michael told me to "Be careful" as I flew around on the parallel bars. I'm glad he can identify risky behavior.
Then out to lunch and ice cream, and to the Scandanavian Heritage Park that heretofore we'd only seen on the cover of tourist brochures...and have driven past.
Man am I glad we stopped there. Talk about a gorgeous park with just enough unusual things to keep a toddler engaged. We rolled down the steep, grassy hills, we climbed rocks that will soon be underwater once the waterfall is flowing. Walked over bridges and winding paths. Played in the empty river beds that will soon have water coursing through them. Michael "fished" in the man-made, neatly-EPDM-lined pond which is still full of leaves and debris and mud from the melted winter season.
We explored the "castle" on the hill which is a wooden replica of a Scandanavian structure. It was built in 2000. So it's still new and gorgeous and it smells deliciously of wood. There was a huge orange horse. What else can I say about the orange horse but that it was about 20 of me high? Michael was scared of it. He wouldn't even touch it, but he pretended it was a landmark straight out of Dora the Explorer, and ran under it to get to the next landmark. He sang songs all day long. So much better than naptime, eh?
Then we picked up John from work and came back to the park...at Michael's second run at the park he became a little overconfident of his surroundings and ...
he fell in the nasty pond
We didn't hesitate a second to rescue him, (OK, so I hesitated because I was too far way, but John saved him). I got there as fast as I could. Thankfully no resuscitation was necessary because the water was only 6 inches deep. He didn't go under or anything like that.
So the only thing to do was to hastily strip off his nasty pond-soaked clothes...
So with our naked little boy, we headed straight for the car, wrapped him in his cherished blanket (thank goodness we take that everywhere we go)...then off to the mall to buy Michael some clothes to change into. Woo-Hoo! Shopping! Home was too far away, you see...and I'm sure none of wanted to go home anyway.
The only outfit we could find for Michael were some Blue's Clues pajamas. It's the first cartoon character clothing I've ever bought for my son. It does cheapen his look. Oh well, they were comfy and he loves 'em. I will never buy him cartoon clothing again though. Mark my words. Then off to Payless for summer shoes. Both Michael & John got some new masculine, functional, stylish sandals out of the deal.
Then we played some more and went out to eat. We spoiled ourselves today.
We were all happy, except John was complaining of some male PMS, possibly due to sex-starvation.
Apart from Michael falling into a nasty pond, the day was marvellous fun. We're going to have the park officials test that water and then we'll treat Michael accordingly, if necessary. I must admit that the pond accident added a bit of morbid whimsy to an otherwise too-perfect day.
Gosh, in re-reading all of that it sounds like I didn't take very good care of my son after his little spill. Do you suppose we should have taken him to the ER instead of merely changing his clothes? Oughtn't we have been more viligant parents?
I dunno, I'm totally new at this parenting thing. I guess the question I should ask is this: If I fell in a nasty pond, how would I want to be treated? Well, I'd probably want to take a shower right away. And definitely have the pond tested and tell the doctor what happened. OK, so there it is. That's what'll happen. Except it's now 6am on the following day...I'm not used to dealing with unusual situations. The hospital is 40 minutes away. Michael is happy and healthy, the pond wasn't ALL that bad although it's nothing I'd ever choose to swim in...I've seen MUCH worse. But I'll get busy.
*Smacking self for being so stupid*
