Head to toe

Today, Jonah was the envy of every other toddler at Greenlake Park. It was a beautiful day: sunny, blue skies and a few puffy white clouds. After gymnastics, I took the kids to the Greenlake park. It's a little lake with trails around the perimeter (perhaps a couple miles), and a playground on one end. At the edge of the playground, between the soft walking trail and the grassy playground, there was a good-sized mud puddle, perhaps about 2 feet in diameter and a good three inches deep. Before I could swoop down and pick up Jonah, he ran to the puddle and jumped right in the middle of it. The bottom two inches of his pants were covered in mud. Since the damage was done, I let him continue to play in the mud puddle. We had the little purple princess doll stroller with us (one of Jonah's absolute favorite toys), so Jonah spent the next thirty minutes running through the puddle, stomping in it and pushing the stroller through it. At least eight other toddlers wanted to do the exact same thing as Jonah, but all I heard was "No! Stop, Olivia!" "Jacob, we're not going to play in the mud today!" "No, no! Lilly, let's play somewhere else." Jonah was the only toddler allowed to play in the mud, and it was the highlight of his day, if not the week. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me (we were our usual 5 minutes late for gymnastics and I didn't have time to run back in the house for my camera), but just imagine my little butterball Jonah covered in mud from toes to shoulders and lots of mud splattered on his face. Truly, ever other toddler at the park today tried and/or wished they could jump in the mud like Jonah. Sure, I have a lot of laundry to do now, but I just couldn't deny him one of the happiest moments of his toddler life.

Two kids, pink pj's. This is blackmail for when Jonah is a teenager. 

Dora!