It was such a dreary rainy day. Boring. So boring.
My son and I disagreed about the things to do for entertainment. Most of our day was consumed by sofa and TV time. I just knew this couldn’t be all there was to do on rainy days. Why should we let rain stop us?
So, I grabbed his red scooter and rode around in the house. My son’s eyes lite up while taking this wayward ride. He giggled and ran away as if I was chasing him. I drove it from the foyer to my bedroom and back. We took turns in this adventure. I obviously don’t think much on the old saying, “No playing in the house”. That’s non-sense to me!
When that got old, my son looked to me for more ideas. At that moment, I could hear the rain coming down even harder. I peaked out through the back door window. I observed the flooding, my yard flooded often. The water rose to the patio cement flooring. Why must this rain ruin our day?..Or did it?
“Ty, get your boots on”. He looked confused in my request as I rushed to put on my pair of black boots. I often created spontaneous experiences for my son and I. I always wanted him to remember me as the “cool mom”.
So, after he reluctantly put his boots and jacket on. I opened the backdoor and jumped into a big puddle onto the cement flooring. I erupted in laughter. I looked back at my son who was standing on the top porch step in a daze. He was studying the situation, as if he was waiting for validation to join my madness. “Come on, it’s fun!” I called to him. He smiled, but was slow to move. He wasn’t sure about this rebellious act. However, once he jumped in one puddle, it opened up the excitement to jump in more. We continued to jump in puddles and laugh. We kicked water at each other. Screamed in happiness and fear. We danced in the rain. Created ripples beside the raindrops. Witnessing splashes of joy. Looking up into the falling rain. In my mind, it resembled freedom of entering a new world. A magical and forbidden place. To walk the path with my most thought of person beside me. I wondered what was running through his mind. What imaginary place did he vision in these rising waters? I couldn’t keep from staring at him. His smile mirrored the beauty, love and joy in his heart…
Then…reality sunk in and we were cold. We were drenched and cold. Plus, our neighbors were probably watching our craziness. We took off running for inside the house. We expressed shock and giggles. So, we took off for the bathroom. I started the tub with warm water. He jumped in with his clothes on. Then, he took the coldness off to warm up. Having to be impatient, I decided to join his idea, except I put an over sized t-shirt and bathing suit on. We splashed yet again. I was determined that our adventure wasn’t over. We were laughing and back to our water fun. Then our cat, Layla leaped onto the tub ledge. I was feeling giddy at the moment, so I thought it would be humorous for her to join our fun. So, I pulled her in. She swam around us. Oddly enough she didn’t seem to care. I reminisced in the moment and saw a happy family. It was such a great feeling of completion. We are a small family, but a happy little unison. I felt this warm feeling witnessing this…a very warm feeling…warm?….Layla just peed in the tub! ABORT! ABORT MISSION! BAD IDEA!
We jumped out laughing yet in disgust. Needless to say, our fun ended pretty abruptly. We took turns taking baths to thoroughly wash ourselves – catless of course. Then we snuggled up on the couch wrapped in our favorite blanket. We drank hot chocolate and watched a movie. That was enough adventure for one boring day.