Today we went to the splash pad. It's a little kiddy water park that just has all sorts of water gadgets that squirt water everywhere. My kids absolutely love it. Often times when we go, some child has brought their home toys along. Not just one, but a whole assortment of fight-instigating gadgets. The children steal, grab and run off with all the other kids toys and there is always some one screaming "MINE!" or crying because something has been toy-napped.
It's hard to know how to handle these situations because my kids are small and don't quite get the concept yet. A little girl has a pink bucket and a blue ball. My daughter also has a pink bucket and blue ball at home. She doesn't have the capacity to understand that even though those toys look just like hers, they are not hers and she can not have them. All she knows is, that looks like mine so it must be mine, why does some other girl have it???
Anyway, some child brought their toys to the splash pad and he was not very open about letting others touch them. In my opinion, if you bring your child's toys to the park etc. those things are fair game. This little boy had a plastic shovel that he was very attached to. In fact, he kept filling a bucket with water and would throw the water at any child that came within a two foot radius of his special shovel. Of course, my son charged forth and grabbed the shovel.
The kid filled up his bucket and doused him with water. My son could give a damn. He just stood there with the shovel in his hand and challenged this kid to do it again. And he did. My son took a large amount of water straight to his face and the other kid roared like a hungry lion. My son basically shrugged and wiped his face with his other hand.
It was at this time that my daughter walked over to see what the fuss was about. She walked up next to her brother and BAM got a face full of bucket-water. She stood there in horror, did a little head shake, threw her hands in the air and came screaming for her mama. And then it happened.
I crouched down like a woman in a television commercial with my arms extended. My daughter ran for 20 feet with her arms stretched out and sobbing cries mixed with mama mama mama. She ran into my arms and buried her head into my chest. It was at that moment I felt like a mom. She hasn't really done that before. Sure she's ran to me here and there but it's normally to hide behind my legs. All she wanted was her mama to make her feel better after some little jerk threw water up her nose. I dried her off and sat with her a bit until she forgot the ordeal and scampered off to go play.
These are the moments I longed for when I was holding a screaming infant at 3am. For some reason, trying to convince a 10 week old to stop crying was not what I pictured when I dreamed of motherhood. However, comforting my little girl, smelling of chlorine, wrapped up tight in a towel is all I knew it would be, the most worth while experience ever.
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