After picking the kids up from school we went to Fort Caroline/Timicuan Preserve to hang out like we often do. The kids like to play at the historical fort there and especially around the small muddy mote that surrounds it. We've seen large crabs and always little fish. But boy is that mote a muddy little swamp. Slimy, stinky, black mud.
When we first moved to Florida I was nervous having the kids around the water so much for fear they might fall in. But Dave put me at ease when he said, "April, if they fall in, you just pull them out!" So as long as I'm right there with them I don't get too nervous anymore. This day at Fort Caroline, as the kids were frolicking around the muddy mote, I remembered how Dave had given me that calming advice and chuckled to myself that probably some day, I would be pulling a kid out. Little did I know that today was the day! And I wasn't nearby to do the pulling!
Poor little muddy Mason. I watched it happen. Mason was bending over near the edge of the mote, sticking a stick in the mud. Isaac too had a stick, a big long stick, and was standing next to Mason. Isaac wasn't paying attention and turned around whereupon the back of his big long stick pushed Mason, head first, into the mote. Isaac couldn't believe it and just stood there as Mason's face and body was enveloped into the slime. "PULL HIM OUT ISAAC!!!" And amazingly he did just that and got Mason back up onto the bank as I gimpy-style ran towards them. Mason's only cry was, "My shoe, my shoe!" Which had disappeared into the muck. When I got to Mason his eyes, nose, face entirely, head, chest, legs, and feet were covered and dripping in the thickest, blackest mud you've ever seen. Ugh! It was about a mile hike out! So quick on my feet, I told Isaac to take his shirt off (which later he told me he thought I was asking him to do just as a punishment) so I could wipe Mason's face down. I washed that shirt 5 times, and soaked it and it still has traces of mud. Serious stuff.
Mason never even cried. And I found his shoe. He walked all the way back to the car where I wrapped him in a quilt and headed for home for a photo shoot. The whole walk back Isaac murmured, "I am such a jerk. Such a jerk. Mom, you can give me any consequence you want. You don't even have to fix me dinner. I will go straight to bed when we get home.(It was only 4:30pm). I am such a jerk." And Ethan was really shook up, he kept telling Isaac "How would you feel if you got pushed in the mud?!!" And other things like that. He was real worried about Mason. But after some fun pictures, a hose down outside, and a warm bubbly bath, Mason was just fine and everyone was laughing again.
When we first moved to Florida I was nervous having the kids around the water so much for fear they might fall in. But Dave put me at ease when he said, "April, if they fall in, you just pull them out!" So as long as I'm right there with them I don't get too nervous anymore. This day at Fort Caroline, as the kids were frolicking around the muddy mote, I remembered how Dave had given me that calming advice and chuckled to myself that probably some day, I would be pulling a kid out. Little did I know that today was the day! And I wasn't nearby to do the pulling!
Poor little muddy Mason. I watched it happen. Mason was bending over near the edge of the mote, sticking a stick in the mud. Isaac too had a stick, a big long stick, and was standing next to Mason. Isaac wasn't paying attention and turned around whereupon the back of his big long stick pushed Mason, head first, into the mote. Isaac couldn't believe it and just stood there as Mason's face and body was enveloped into the slime. "PULL HIM OUT ISAAC!!!" And amazingly he did just that and got Mason back up onto the bank as I gimpy-style ran towards them. Mason's only cry was, "My shoe, my shoe!" Which had disappeared into the muck. When I got to Mason his eyes, nose, face entirely, head, chest, legs, and feet were covered and dripping in the thickest, blackest mud you've ever seen. Ugh! It was about a mile hike out! So quick on my feet, I told Isaac to take his shirt off (which later he told me he thought I was asking him to do just as a punishment) so I could wipe Mason's face down. I washed that shirt 5 times, and soaked it and it still has traces of mud. Serious stuff.
Mason never even cried. And I found his shoe. He walked all the way back to the car where I wrapped him in a quilt and headed for home for a photo shoot. The whole walk back Isaac murmured, "I am such a jerk. Such a jerk. Mom, you can give me any consequence you want. You don't even have to fix me dinner. I will go straight to bed when we get home.(It was only 4:30pm). I am such a jerk." And Ethan was really shook up, he kept telling Isaac "How would you feel if you got pushed in the mud?!!" And other things like that. He was real worried about Mason. But after some fun pictures, a hose down outside, and a warm bubbly bath, Mason was just fine and everyone was laughing again.
These are the pictures from the photo shoot after he was wiped down (believe it or not):
1 comment:
I have had to pull two children out of water since living here. When Kaden was little and still in a stroller we were looking at the wildlife in the pond at the town center. Kai was bent over trying to get a closer look when Kaden leaned out of his stroller and pushed Kai on in! Very surprising to all of us but funny. The second was two weeks ago, we were at our neighbors for dinner and Kaden was bent down over their pool trying to get a ball, the ball moved and in he went. The normally "fearless" Kaden shed a tear over that one, it scared him. I can tell you though, I am glad it wasn't black slime. :)
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