What’s that? A boundary?

Mitchell’s never met a boundary he couldn’t cross. He takes such joy in stretching an inch into a mile, I just know he’s going to become a lawyer. Or a corporate embezzler. Maybe I should start teaching him about hiding money in overseas accounts just in case…

Anyway, we went to a new park on Friday. I’d heard a few moms raving about it at story time a while back, and I figured since school had started, now would be a good time to go. I really should have researched it, though, because it turns out it was an AWESOME water feature that runs through the children’s area. Mitchell was THRILLED.

Mitchell: “I can touch it?”

Me: “HANDS ONLY.”

Notice his nice dry outfit.

After a while, I pulled him away to see the rest of the children’s area. This included lots of specially pruned trees to create tunnels and hiding spaces, a fun little musical maze with giant instruments for the kids to find, and more water features, one filled with moss that even Mitchell threw back after pulling it out.

Then we circled back around to the water feature. By this point, there were lots of other kids playing in it, so I told Mitchell he could, too. FEET ONLY.

See the devilish grin? Yeah, that’s because he decided that “feet only” included jumps. Big jumps. With big splashes. And, oh, big “accidental” falls. “Gee, mom, if I’m wet already…”

Needless to say, by the time we left the park, he was soaking wet. Completely, 100% drenched. So…he got stripped down for the ride home. Luckily I had a leftover towel in the backseat. He did, however, discover that seat belt buckles get a bit warm after they’ve sat in the car a while.

As usual, my phone’s GPS died the moment we left the park, and I had no idea how to get home. So I missed my exit and had to turn around not once, not twice, but THREE times. It’s not like I noticed right away that I missed my exit, either. I was all the way out of the metro area once before I looked around and said, “This doesn’t look right…”

By the time we got back to our corner of the world, I figured I deserved some Sonic. I totally forgot that I had a naked toddler in the back seat. She noticed. The air conditioner quit on my car, so all the windows were down, and Mitchell just grinned and waved. She gave me such a “I’m called CPS on you” look that I tried to explain that I’d taken him to the park without a change of clothes, but I guess that’s not as good of an excuse as I thought. It’s like she expected me to be prepared or something. Psh. That takes all the adventure out of life.

Mitchell’s also in this adorable little self-sufficient phase right now. Which is great for some things, not so great for others. He’s also hit a growth spurt, so, with the help of a handy dandy step stool, he can reach just about anything in our house. My top-shelf candy is no longer a secret. And the fridge has become open for browsing.

He’s also decided to start dressing the dogs. Kingsley was NEVER this patient for me when I tried to dress him!

Laika didn’t really tolerate being dressed up too well. She didn’t think she could perform her guard dog duties wearing sunglasses.

We also went on a hike to our favorite waterfall spot on Saturday. Mitchell decided to really explore the cave (“tunnel”). There’s a pool of water back there that I didn’t know about. He found it. He kept asking if he could pet the fish (I don’t think there were really fish back there). And then, on the part of the path that’s a 2-foot-wide ledge with about a ten foot drop to the ground below, he threw the mother of all temper tantrums because he couldn’t go back to get the fish. Justin had to carry him up and out, which just made him scream harder. And, of course, once we got to the top, I sat down with him on the bench and he calmed down within two minutes and was an angel the rest of the hike. Passerby kept telling him how cute he was, so I guess sound doesn’t travel very well there, thank goodness!

Saturday night, Rosie and I had a big night of grocery shopping! Whoo! It was her first time sitting in the cart, and she enjoyed it. Almost as much as everyone else enjoyed looking at her. She was very comfy!

So, that’s our big week. I sometimes feel like Will Ferrel’s character on Old School…”We have a big weekend planned. We have to go to Home Depot, we might even go to Bed Bath & Beyond! I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.” Justin and I were remarking on just how differently we spend our time these days. We used to spend our weekends making our way through one series after another on Netflix, and now we’re lucky if we get one nap time episode of a show. But, temper tantrums and all, it’s a lot of fun! These kids are lucky they’re cute.