Quiet! We're hunting puddles!

My poor, sweet boy.

Jesse had an extremely rough day at daycare today. When I got home and Dan filled me in on what happened, I knew I needed to get Jesse out and spend some one-on-one time with him. Immediately after Simon was born, I made time like this a priority. But in the past few months, since Jesse has transitioned so well to Simon's arrival, I've let it fall by the wayside.

I nursed Simon and then asked Dan to take him for a bit. It was raining so I had the perfect activity for my special boy and I to do. He was already wearing his yellow rain boots, his "work boots" as he calls them. So I told him to come to the front hall closet with me. When I pulled out his matching rain coat, he knew what was up. "My prize? What's my prize, Mama?" he kept giggling as I helped him dress, playing like he didn't know what the surprise was.

Out we headed. Out into the street. Holding hands and talking as we walked along. "We're hunting puddles!" he squealed. "We're puddle hunters!"

It doesn't get much better than that.

We stayed out for about a half hour, finding puddles, splashing in them, giggling and squealing, ruining my khakis, holding hands when cars came to pass, looking down sewers and talking about what we saw. We found spider webs, rocks wedged in holes of manhole covers, bugs, worms, arrows and 7's spraypainted by the gas company, a pool full of green water and a bunch of different fallen leaves.

We talked a little bit about the incident that happened at school. But mostly we just talked about nothing.

"Whats is this, Mama?"
"That's a sewer where the water goes when it rains."
"But why?"
"Because the water has to go someplace or all the cars will float away."
"But why?"
"Because when it rains some water goes in the grass, some goes on the road, some on the house roof, some into the sewer."
"But why?"
"But why what, Jesse?"
"Why does it rain?"
"Because God wants to water the earth."
"Oh. Okay!"

We found the best puddle at the intersection of 10th Street and Priscilla. We splashed and played in that one the longest. When we were finished and Jesse wanted to find "the next puddle" we turned toward home. He cried, "But I don't want to go home!" I asked him why. It was time for dinner and Daddy and Baby Simon were waiting for us.

"I want to stay outside with you forever, Mama."

My heart.