Today's forecast: blue sky, bright sunshine, no wind, high of 71.We had to do something with this. I emailed David at work and proposed a picnic for dinner.
2 corn dogs and an Oreo mint milkshake from Cookout= $4.12
I threw carrot sticks, grapes, a baggie of chips and Cheezits, and water bottles into a plastic bag. Oh yes, and a plastic play shovel. That would become very important later.
My teething toddler had been grumpy all day, but the playground sand, the shovel, and flinging handfuls of Cheerios at ducks seemed to cure all that.
We sat on a bench, eating our dogs, sharing the milkshake, and watched him methodically scoop and dump, scoop and dump... And grin. We were grinning, too, since we got to talk to each other, uninterrupted, for 20 minutes.
David likes to go down to a low fishing pier to feed the ducks. It's true that we can get closer to them because there are no rails. I totally respect the logic of his position. I just like to stay on the high bridge with rails so I don't have to have a "water plan."
The Cheerios in the bag were gone. Seth decided that we needed to do something different. He said, "Want to get in," and then proceeded to put one foot over the edge. David grabbed him. He writhed and continued his determined quest to make his way into the cold, dirty lake. I'm not sure that our laughter gave him the clearest signals about how we felt about his plan.
He was soon pacified by throwing pebbles into the bushes on the side of the trail. Boys and rocks go together like pigs and mud.
And I? I store up these moments in my heart. I sit my heavy self down next to the toddler with the smiling blue eyes and the duck food. I wonder how he got so big and so beautiful so quickly. I put a hand on my hiccuping stomach full of "baby brother," and think, "These are the days..."
1 comment:
They sure are :)
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