So here it is 2:30 in the afternoon and I'm locked outside on a cool, windy day with a three year old, a camera, and a giraffe. Stuart is at work 45 minutes away. I should call him to come home. I dial his phone but it goes to voice mail. Oh yeah, he is in a seminar from 1:00 - 5:00 today. I could keep calling him and eventually he would realize it was important and answer the silly phone. But it isn't really an emergency. Surely I can find someway to entertain the little guy outside for a few hours. We love being outside. However, the wind is cold and Nicholas now has to go potty. After teaching him to pee by a tree (why do guys go by trees anyway?)we escaped to his fort to try to get out of the wind. That was fun for a while but it isn't as much fun when you are just staying hunkered down to stay warm. Plan B, get moving! We took a walk to a park down the street. That is always fun. And, of course, I had my camera in tow and got a few cute pics. Here's Nicholas proudly hanging from the monkey bars himself. Granted he never made it past the first two bars but still it is more than he usually does on them....
Well, we passed an hour playing at the park. But it is still cold and as I calculate the time that Stuart will actually get out of his seminar and make it through traffic to our house, I realize that it will be dark and we will be really cold by then. I've got to come up with Plan C. Mind is too cold and tired to think. Wait! I have my debit card in my pocket. Why is it in my pocket? Who cares! I now have a three year old, a camera, a giraffe, and MONEY! Ha! And Stuart grumbles that I never put things neatly back into my wallet where they belong!
I decide that we can make a hike to McDonald's and find comfort in a warm building with bathrooms and food and of course, Nicholas will be content to play endlessly in the indoor playground until Stuart can come pick us up. I'm so proud of myself for my delightful solution. We are close to three McDonald's but which one should we go to? No, not walking down 3040. No, not crossing 2499. Hmm, that just leaves the third McDonalds. It's a straight shot down a nearby street. Enough traffic to feel safe but not too much to worry about getting run over. I tell Nicholas our plan and he is ready. We start on our journey. This won't be bad. It's really not that far. We'll be there in no time....No time, that is, by my walking standards but not by the standards of a three year old. Within the first block of our hike, we stopped several times to pick up those prickly little balls that fall from trees, a stick or two, an acorn, and we had to discuss the rules that Nicholas just made up that state that it is ok to walk on the sidewalk cracks that have grass growing in them but not ones that don't. Whatever! Let's just get going, little buddy!
Whew, we made it out of the neighborhood and past the middle school. Now it's a straight walk up this street. I can even see the traffic light where the McDonald's is from here. We'll be there soon. Nope. Nicholas now has to use his stick to poke into the branches of each bush that we pass to "check the pressure". I'm sure this is some guy thing he has picked up from Stuart in the garage. Oh my goodness! Can we move a little faster? I decide to carry him a little way to try to get there faster. Boy, that didn't last long. When did he get so heavy!
Still walking. Oops, he poked an ant hill with the stick and didn't realize it. Drop the stick! Drop the stick! I have no way to dress a hundred ant bites out here in the middle of the street in this blustering wind! Oh look, we're crossing a bridge. "Pick me up so I can see. Pick me up! What is that down there? Where has all the water gone? What is that trash doing down there? Why is this rail on the bridge?" Normally I would have loved to have answered those questions with thoughtful responses and even ventured down under the bridge to explore. However, again, it is cold and windy, I need a bathroom, and it's getting late. And that McDonald's which seemed to be "just down the street" now seems to be just as far away as it was when we began. My, this is much farther than I thought.
I resort to more bursts of carrying him to rush things along although we still ended up with more sticks and a couple more rocks that he picked up when I let him walk so my arms could just get a break. We finally made it to the Golden Arches. Man, I've never been so excited to go in those doors. One kids meal please. We collapse at a table and Nicholas chows down on his food. I know I gave that little guy quite a work out. He really did great. No complaining or whining. He seemed to have fun the whole time. He is such an adventurer. After his dinner, he ran off to play with some boys on the indoor playground while I finished off those last few fries he left (which, of course, he came back looking for a few minutes later! Oopsie!).
I called Stuart again shortly after 5:00. He had not yet checked his voice mail and was upset that he didn't know what had happened. I reassured him that everything was fine and it wasn't the kind of emergency that he had needed to rush home for. Although I may not have had the best plan, the boy and I were safe and entertained the whole time. He came to pick us up at the McDonald's (because I wasn't making that walk again!). He said it was about 2 miles from the house to this McDonald's. Hmm, not quite the short little walk I had thought it was. Looking back, it really wasn't all that bad. We were cold but other than that we did stop to check things out all along our walk. It was an interesting little adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment