Mudpuppy

This morning the Burlington Free Press had a story about mudpuppies. "Consider the hapless mudpuppy: Ugly, short-sighted, slimy and secretive."

And of course that reminded me of yesterday morning.

The car was in the shop getting new struts so the adventure of the morning was taking the bus downtown. Sam likes the bus although I'll admit he likes the thought of the bus more than the actual riding of the bus. We managed to catch the bus without incident and went to the library for some new books.

While we were there, Sam was peacefully playing with some blocks when a kid walked up behind him and clocked him over the head with a toy. Hard! I heard the clunk and the subsequent wailing and went over to comfort him while the boy's mom went to reprimand her kidlet; she was properly embarassed and apologetic about her son's behavior so I can't rant about that. I just don't get why kids do this stuff...they weren't playing together or fighting over toys, it was just out of the blue. Sam's been known to bonk other kids on the head but I don't recall any bonk and run incidences with strangers.

He survived and we went about our business. We stopped in to see Judyboo at the office where Sam was greeted and spoiled by almost everyone there. I was lucky enough to score a cappuccino. Mmmm. Leaving became a tricky proposition and entailed much flailing and crying. I made the mistake of planning to walk walk home since I'm really trying to get Sam to walk on his own for long distances rather than relying on the stroller all the time. I mistakenly expected that Sam would happily meander home but instead I had three blocks of kicking and flailing and screams to go back downtown. I'm sure all those who saw me envied me.

Finally, I came upon the solution which just happens to tie into the lead of my post....mudpuddles! The sidewalks are loaded with them because of all the melting snow. It took very little encouragement to interest Sam in the puddles and we puddlejumped all the way home. My hapless, slimy boy. But he napped well.