Bug,  na blow me,  out out out of the house!,  The Hood

Day Three: The Duck Pond Fiasco

November 3, 2007 /

park mom

NaBloPoMo Day Three

I was ready to post letters tonight but somehow, magically at the stroke of nine p.m., I became incredibly tired. I hate it when this happens. At least I didn’t fall asleep putting Baby Bug to bed. I do that all the time and then I get nothing done. It’s pathetic though. I drank a whole cup of coffee at five and I swear I could fall asleep in less than seven minutes if I put my head down right now.

making mommy nervous

Maybe I’m tired today because I spent a marathon three hours at the Duck Pond with Baby Bug. It sounds like fun, right? Nice weather, ducks, water, a park, a fun kid… what could go wrong?

A mom who is paranoid that her kid is going to topple over head first into the pond, is what could go wrong. Baby Bug is not known for her steadiness on her feet and she falls head first at home all the time without a pond. I was just waiting for it to happen and I think my shoulders are a mass of knotted muscles because of it.

us, at the duck pond

I had told Toby how much fun Baby Bug has been having lately when we go on walks together. Actually, to be completely honest, I was complaining about how getting anywhere takes a million years because she has to examine every rock, stick and leaf. And then when she does finally catch up to me, she often decides she wants to go back the other way and I spend a lot of time calling her to hurry up and stay by mommy.

kickin' it

Toddlers are toddlers and they will do what they do. I’m learning the hard way that if you force them to do things your way (ie: walk forward in a straight line) they will buckle and balk, scream and yell, twist and shout in every imaginable combination until your eyeballs roll back in your head and you are convinced that letting them win just this one battle will not be the end of the world.

Sigh. It makes me very tired. I think I spent half of today holding her wiggling body as tight as I could so that she didn’t expel herself off of me and land headfirst on the concrete. Kicking, wiggling, pushing herself away… you name it. It is amazing what a little twenty-pound body and a will of steel can do. I don’t think I could get a better work out if I took three spinning classes back to back.

screensaver

I want to say the duck pond was fun. It was really pretty (green algae and all) but it was so much work. I don’t think I’ll be going back anytime soon. It didn’t help that I misplaced my phone and we spent an hour looking for it with Baby Bug struggling against me. I tried carrying her in my arms, I carried her upside down, I put her on my shoulders. It was just impossible.

I would have strapped her into the stroller but Toby and I had the bright idea that I should leave the stroller at home so Baby Bug could “be free to roam and explore”. Obviously, I wasn’t thinking about the great big body of green water that she could fall into. Nor was I thinking about her will power of steel. A “walk in the park” was anything but a “walk in the park.”

It’s not like she would drown. The pond is only a few feet deep. But still, I just didn’t really want to go sloshing in to save her. With the mud and wet clothes and the probability that she would go head first… it all seemed like a bad idea to me.

sparkle

In the end, I won’t say it was a complete bust. She didn’t fall in the water and I got a bunch of pictures. As a reward, I think we both will sleep really good tonight. All’s well that end’s well, right? Just don’t ask me to go to the duck pond until Baby Bug learns to swim.

28 Comments

  • familymclean

    November 3, 2007 at 10:06 pm

    Amazing photos! I would have the same fear increased by the fact that there is all the algae and what if you couldnt see where she fell, aghhhhh, maybe because I almost drown as a kid, but I am super paranoid around water.
    So loving the shoes!

  • Nicole

    November 3, 2007 at 10:16 pm

    Great photos! Really amazing shot of the ducks. We started Little D in swimming lessons because of my paranoia of her falling into fountains, ponds, any other body of water!

  • Carrie

    November 4, 2007 at 5:05 am

    Great pics! I feel your pain about a toddler who wants to do what the toddler wants. I can’t imagine taking Erik to a place with water. He wouldn’t fall in head first. He would leap in feet first and lay down. We have a fairly large mud puddle at the end of our steps when it rains and he always lays down in it if I don’t carry him past it (I let him lay in it on our way home b/c I just don’t care at that point).

  • witchypoo

    November 4, 2007 at 6:15 am

    Love the banner, and BB, of course.
    What program do you use to create your illustrations?

    SAJ says: I use Adobe Illustrator (CS2). A post on the subject is in the works.

  • Erin

    November 4, 2007 at 7:06 am

    I’m loving this new post a day project! All my regular favs are posting with regularity and I’m tickled! Just wanted to say that I love the background on your new header. Tres chic! Congratulations on surviving a toddler wrangle all by your lonesome!

  • Marilyn

    November 4, 2007 at 8:14 am

    That photo at the bottom is adorable…but the one that really got me is where she’s lying the grass looking back at you. She looks like she’s thinking, “Mom, you think the POND is a big deal? You have NO IDEA what I’ve got in store for you…” ;)

    SAJ says: She is TOTALLY thinking that. I took this after a roll on the ground temper tantrum and the only way I could get her to laugh (snap out of it) was to growl at her.

  • Spandrel Studios

    November 4, 2007 at 8:33 am

    I’m so in awe of how you’re able to capture those perfect moments with Baby Bug! (And if these were taken wtih your minivan-Mom camera, even more amazed!)

    SAJ says: A lot of them are but a few are taken with my Dad’s SD20 that I snagged on Halloween and have not given back yet. There’s something wrong with my Dad’s camera though. The lcd screen doesn’t always turn on. Did you know about this Dad? I need to call you. I hope I didn’t break it. Wouldn’t that be my luck.

  • BeachMama

    November 4, 2007 at 12:57 pm

    Fabulous photos! And just to forewarn you they don’t stop lagging behing for a long time. Every morning to and from school is battle of “Come on Bud keep up” . If I walk slower to keep him beside me he slows down even more, the battle is never ending. Either that or he runs so far ahead that I have to run after him.

    And the green water is priceless with Baby Bugs’ obsession with green.

  • erika

    November 4, 2007 at 1:10 pm

    you got me wanting to take a walk with the fiance around our geese pond. we went there after bagels this morning and the whole place is DEMOLISHED. renovating :( so i went for a walk by myself later on.

    i love baby bug’s obsession with green. so cute and different :D

  • OMSH

    November 4, 2007 at 1:17 pm

    Okay, so the duck pond was a fiasco, but the photos are fabulous!! The colors are so vibrant and BB looks to be having a wonderful time!

    Green algae … yep, we have that in the pond near our home where the crane’s migrate annually.

  • Abbie

    November 4, 2007 at 5:14 pm

    The photos are gorgeous, and for what it’s worth, a child has fallen into a similar duck pond on my watch. It wasn’t fun, but we all survived. Even the doll who had to go into the washing machine.
    I’m glad you had no such bad luck, though!

  • ~aj~

    November 4, 2007 at 7:10 pm

    The photo of BB in the grass is absolutely priceless!

    I’ve had similar experiences with our nearby duck pond. Except last fall I made the mistake of taking two 1 year olds there. I needed about 4 more arms to keep up with both of them.

  • justJENN

    November 4, 2007 at 9:08 pm

    THAT KID IS TOO CLOSE TO THE POND!

    I’m kidding. I can read between the lines on this one, sounds like an incredibly stressful day. Nice, but damn exhausting.