Water, Water Everywhere

The past few days have been filled with lots of fun and play dates. Yesterday, we went over to a friend's house to play. They have a long, green snake that spurts out water along his body. While the moms snacked and chatted, the kids played in the lovely non-Florida grass, went down the slide, and played with the water snake.
While I thought Riley would be really interested in playing in the water, she was more interested in pushing Lily's baby doll stroller. Then...the big guns were pulled out - the red car. As I know Riley has a strong obsession with our little red car, I knew she would be excited about it. Indeed she was. So much so, she tried to push everyone out of the car. We are really working on sharing, I promise, but it's really hard for her to comprehend that saying, "No, no, no" to her little friends and squeezing and pushing them until they exit is not nice. So...Riley had to go to time out...in the corner of the patio. If that wasn't enough fun for one day, the moms loaded up the kids, 7 in all, and headed out to Chik-Fil-A. I think my little peanut is going to turn into a little nugget. After a little lunch, we headed home for a nap for Riley and Mommy.

So, I guess I am a glutton for punishment and wanted to continue our water adventures later that afternoon. Riley loves to go "side" but it is so blazing hot that I am tempted to stay indoors for the rest of the summer. So, my brilliant idea was to let her play with her little red car (a different type but still oh so exciting) while I ran the sprinkler for her. We have an old school one that rotates from left to right as it sprays a fan of water. Because of the lack of good grass in our yard, I assembled the water excitement on the driveway, stripped Riley down to nothing and let her go at it. So picture this: A naked toddler running down the street while pushing a little red car...and a drenched mother running and yelling after her.

You see, Riley was somewhat perturbed that the "rain," as she called it, was messing with her alone time with the car. She kept telling it "No" and trying to run away from the sprinkler. My thoughts of a hot summer day, frolicking in the sprinkler was dampened. Instead, I had a butt naked baby screaming and running in the middle of the street. Sign me up for Mother of the Year Award, please.

After I pried her little hands off the car's handle, I carried her inside. During her bath and at least for a good 15-20 minutes afterwards, she was wailing, screaming CCAAARRRR!

I called Dan at work and told him that when he returned home to find the driveway littered with clothes and a diaper, a sprinkler, a red car, oh, and our house phone, to not be alarmed. We were not kidnapped, I just couldn't return outside to collect the rest of our belongings for fear of another CCCAAARRR incident.