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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.