And the worst mother of the year award goes to...

[charliesmum]

So we're at cedar run, and we're on the nature trail, and Charlie is having a grand time playing this 'scavenger hunt' game that was given to him, looking for pine cones, etc when we come upon a cedar water stream. (Cedar water, for those who don't know, is found in the Pine Barrens and is a deep reddish color, because of the cedar trees that grow near it.) The water feels soft to the touch, almost soapy so I told Charlie to feel the water. This was supposed to be an educational trip, after all. Dutifully, Charlie crouches down by the stream and reaches down to put his fingers in the water. There was this little deck built over the stream, so I went up on the deck to get a picture of Charlie feeling the water. I take the picture, then stand up to continue our walk when I hear what can only be described as a 'plop'. I turn just in time to to see Charlie disappear headfirst into the stream. He's a great kid, he didn't panic, he just turned himself around under water, then came up sputtering, wet and muddy to inform us "I fell in the cedar water."

Fortunately we weren't too far away from the education center, and trudged back along the path, Charlie recounting the event out loud (Which is what he does when he is trying to process things.) My husband and I, after the initial shock wore off, couldn't help but laugh. By the time we got to the center, Charlie, while still wet, had come to terms with the situation, and was obviously filing the memory under 'bad things that happened to me' because he said to me as we were walking into the building 'you lost me at the mall' which I did do. Once. At Christmas time.

Sigh.

So we didn't get to see the owls or the fox, we did spend $8 on a Cedar Run shirt so he would have at least one dry thing for the ride home, and the woman at the center kindly gave us a free pass for the next time we come, so we can try again.

"She struggled up through the weeds, incoherent with rage, and rose from the ditch like Venus Anadyomene, only older, and with more duckweed." - Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters

Comments

[faeriethistle.livejournal.com]

oh, no. that doesnt qualify. getting your kid wet constitutes as "fun."
*i* locked my six week old daughter in the car when i went back to the obgyn for my six week check up. i freaked out! she slept through it just fine. mommy was the one who was close to dying.
oh, wait! then there was the time, the day before kindergarten was to begin, that i told my son to "run go jump in bed." he did. he ran, he jumped, he flew into the headboard and had to go have stitches.
i could think of more given time, but i am supposed to be working.
nah! i gotta get caught up with friends and such.