Best. Mom. Ever.

liquid sunshine

With weeks of endless rain, we've been drawing up plans for our family's ark. I don't mind the rain at all but Benjamin does - only because it means I won't grant his constant requests to play at the park. I kept telling him, "Let's wait until it stops raining". Then it became an incentive to get him to do things: "After your nap" or "After we eat dinner". When those tasks were completed, he'd say "Go to the park" but I'd look outside, see the sheets of unyielding, chilly rain coming down, and would quickly divert his attention to something else. Still, he kept asking. And I felt guilty. Guilty for keeping our poor, little energizer bunny indoors. Guilty for bribing him to do things. Guilty for not making good on my promise. As we sat at lunch yesterday, I told Benjamin we would go to the park after his nap... "no matter what, I promise!".

The outing didn't happen until after Dave left for his scouting adventure and we finished dinner. After I cleaned up the dinner plates, I grabbed Benjamin and said "Let's go!". I zipped up his new raincoat and he pulled on his alligator rain boots. He grabbed Thomas (his little bike) and I pushed the garage door button. As we peered out into the grey of this early Friday evening, he stopped. I tried to get him on his bike and he backed away with great hesitation. I wondered if the rain would hinder him from achieving his greatest dream.

A second later, he hopped from his place next to the bike out into the driving rain. I thought, "Ok, no bike". That worked for me because it is slow going when he still hasn't grasped the concept of pedaling. I figured we might not get as wet.

That last thought? Hilarious, in hindsight.

Instead of heading up to the neighborhood park, he took an immediate detour... headed next door to the still-under-construction lot, with (thanks to the downpour) its very own moat.

And the rest, my friends, is history.

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking, but I will add that I had to pull him from the murky deep and he spent a luxurious 45-minutes in a lovely, steamy bath. And then not only went to bed easier than ever, but slept for a record-setting 12 hours.