The Puddle

Of all the things that I thought might go wrong today, I never thought it would be a stupid puddle that was the end of me. But boy was I wrong. We were off to meet our friends for a fun day at the "beach" at Bear Creek Lake, my little man was having fun in the water, digging with his shovel, and even sat down to eat some lunch. But then it happened. He saw the puddle, the big puddle on the sidewalk. At first I assumed it was harmless, he's walk through it once and that would be the end of it. But no, not only was this puddle the best puddle ever {according to Max} but it was also VERY slippery. How did I find this out? Well, my little guy was walking towards the puddle as I followed behind, then he went for it, he ran in, he slipped, he fell. Ouch. But he jumped back up before I could even scoop him up, I said let's go and waited for him to follow. As he began to follow he changed his mind, turning and running back to the puddle, slip, fall, ouch. Now both legs and somehow a foot were scraped up. We were done with the puddle. But, he wasn't so thrilled with that decision, and everyone there was going to hear about it. As I carried him back towards our towel and toys he screamed as loud as he could. As soon as I would put him down he would make a break for the moss covered puddle. I tried taking him to the lake {a big puddle, right?} Well, he wasn't having it. I told him we could look for fish and frogs, this distracted him momentarily , but then he was bolting to the puddle again, and again, and again. As I stood in the lake holding my crying child, I realized this was not going to work. As much as I wanted to stay and have fun, and maybe even talk to my friends for more than a second, I knew we had to go. I sadly said goodbye, and we packed up our stuff to go. Max cried as we walked by that stupid puddle, and I wanted to too. Why couldn't we have a fun "beach" day? Why did we have to have a bad day when we had planned a good day? I guess this is all just par for the course and I should be getting used to it by now. At least I have friends who understand why I can never finish a conversation, and why I can't always stay, even if I want to.  I wasn't just sad for me, I was sad for Max. If only that puddle hadn't of caught his eye he would've had a fun day. So today is not blamed on me, or Max, it is blamed on the puddle. I am sure we will go through many more meltdowns, for many different reasons, and I am okay with that. Why? Because I can't avoid them, and as soon as my little guy says "mommy?" and gives me a kiss, I forget all about his little fit and we start fresh. I am also hoping that one day he'll grow out of it....one day.

Katherine Callahan