Yesterday my older son had baseball practice. My husband wasn't home from work yet so I loaded up all three kids and off to the ball field we went. Now I have to tell you, if I am lugging all 3 munchkins to a ball practice I prefer it be one for my son. That way I am pretty likely to know where he is the whole time. Otherwise that boy can give a momma whiplash. He's like some kind of lightining bolt striking one place then the next. I don't know where all his energy comes from. Have you ever heard the expression "expect the unexpected"? I live it all day every day. I think I'll give you an example of what I mean.
Last season we were all at a ballgame for my daughter. I swear I felt like my head was on a swivel that day. He would dash back and forth from the sand pile to a tree that had fallen across a drainage ditch. According to the kids playing that day I overheard things like "Hurry, we have to cross the bridge over the jungle swamp!". Well, like I said,the bridge was a fallen tree and the jungle swamp was a drainage ditch about 3 feet across. About every 3-4 minutes I would yell "Son, stop playing on that tree! If you fall in that nasty water you're walking home". Most of the time I spent watching my son play on the tree anyway. When my daughter would come up to bat I would turn my attention back to the game. Midway through one of her turns at bat I hear people laughing. Well, that in itself was nothing. People laugh about things all the time, right?.......Up walks my son COVERED in smelly, green gunk. He said "Mom I fell in". Believe it or not I had figured that out already. I know I mentioned the ditch before but I didn't share that the title "drainage ditch" implied that perhaps it actually drained......it didn't. The bottom contained about 6 inches of some of the most disgusting, stagnant water you have ever seen. As I stared down from the bleachers at my dripping child a slight breeze started. I was assaulted with a horrible smell. Guess what it was. IT WAS MY SON!!!! He wanted to know if I brought him extra clothes. He was 7 at the time. At some point moms stop bringing you extra clothes. I had already reached that point. I said, "I told you to stay away from that water, you are just going to have to wait for your sisters game to be over" (there was only one more inning left). That had to be the LONGEST inning of softball ever. Bless his heart (and mine) he complained about something the whole time. "Mom, my clothes are stuck to me", "Mom, why can't we go sit in the car?". That last one really got me. "There is NO WAY you are putting your Swamp Thing behind in my car,we'll get Dad to take you home." Believe it or not he did not want to ride home with Daddy. He was going to regret this decision. After the game ended he and I walked to the car. He actually started to climb in. I said "STOP! You are NOT getting in my car with those nasty clothes on, take them off". "WHAT???!!!!!" He was FREAKED OUT. "Mom, someone might see me" I got a blanket from the back of the car and held it up for him to strip behind. In the 10 minutes I spent trying to get him to take off his wet clothes the sun had gone down. He began to shiver. This more than anything got him out of those wet clothes. I helped him wrap up in the blanket and get in the car. We live really close to the place where the game was. I have to tell you that it seemed like miles! His wet clothes stunk up that car in about 2 seconds. Plus I had turned on the heat (in the middle of summer) because he was cold. It felt like we were in a rainforest nighmare. Finally we arrived home. He streaked into the house and headed straight for the shower. I have never seen a child that anxious to bathe. He was almost as anxious to get clean as I was for him to be clean.
There was no punishment given for disobeying his mother by playing on that tree....I think he suffered enough.
After he had showered and dressed he came in the living room and snuggled up to his mommy. He smelled so good now. He looked up at me and said, "Mom. how did you know I was gonna fall in?". "Oh honey, moms know lots of things, you should always listen to your mother". "Okay momma, I will". He did listen to me after that....until the next time he wanted to do something that his parents didn't want him to do.
Life would be so dull without my three greatest blessings! I love my little rascals more than anything.
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