did that really just happen?

we met some great friends at kerr park this morning and had a delightful time playing and chatting.


our friends headed home, so we decided to indulge the warm spring breeze with a leisurely walk beside the kerr park creek. we found man sized sticks to prod the lazy river along its course.
our walking and talking moved to perching.
we perched along the little creek bed and threw rocks, and went "fishing" with our sticks. slowly the boys shoes crept past the mud and into the shallow waters.

i thought to myself,
"what a cool mom i am! look at my adorable boys! i love their new shorts. i'm so glad foster wore his crocks today. perfect for our first creek walking. man, i hate crocks...but they sure are handy. i bet all the other moms are looking at us having so much fun wishing they were cool enough to let their kids play in the stream.
i am awesome."


it must have been my haughty attitude that prompted the next chain of disasterous events.

foster ventured forward with gusto. marching, splashing, adventurizing onward down the creekbed.


in true rowan fashion, rock throwing and stick poking was enjoyable, but cold water foot splashing was over the line. as i reached over the creekbed to pluck him out, my favorite flip flops (worn in honor of the first warm day) got a slosh of mud under their thongs. i was internally peeved, especially because i had worn my only pair of decent fitting jeans and they were dangerously close to my muddy sandals.

i looked up to find foster in a bit of distress about 50 ft down the creek.

"mom, my crock came off!"


"well, put it back on buddy! i don't want you walking in the creek without shoes!! there's rocks and stuff and who knows what else. please put your shoe back on!"


"but i can't! i'm stuck!"


"you can do it buddy. just put your shoe back on. right now please!'


"i need help mom!"

as our conversation transpired, rowan and i approached his location to find quite a new issue.
leg one was buried in what seemed to be a mixture of quick sinking mud and sand.
leg two (the one without the shoe) was dangling out of the water and quickly causing leg one to become unstable.

i could see his distress and sprung into action.

"buddy, it's ok. i'm going to come get you. you're ok buddy! hang on."

i put rowan and my water bottle down (newly purchased in a pack of 2 for the clearance price of $3 at target. i love it. very cute.) strapped on my bag, and rolled up my favorite jeans.

no sooner had my weight shifted into the creek bed, i realized i had a problem.
i immediately sank down 2 FEET into the mud!


my mind raced to forget all of the creatures that are currently mud dwellers, and i quickly stepped with my second foot to get closer to foster. it sank even farther down.


i stepped again and reached foster, but by now, both shoes were lost forever deep in the depths of mud.


"oh my goodness!!!! what are we going to do!!! my shoes are gone!!!" i shrieked.

i grabbed foster (one shoe in hand, the other shoe was now future fish food) and leaped up the other side of the creek wall.


rowan (still stranded on the other side) watching all of this transpire, heard my shriek, saw my LEGS AND JEANS COVERED in thick disgusting mud and all at once noticed he was alone on the other side of the creek. not good. he went ballistic.


foster was hysterically adamant about not wanting to leave his shoe behind in the mud. i could barely contain my own peril at the thought of myself walking back with no shoes let alone a child with one shoe, and another child overcome with mud terror.


i grabbed foster and jumped back into the mud and over to rowan's side of the creek.

we were now 1/4 mile from the car.


fyi: there is no grass in march. just dirt, sticks and a strange assortment of scratchy leaves. foster is 40 lbs. rowan is 28 lbs. i was barefoot. my children were beyond hungry (it was 11:45 by this time) and foster was very nearly heartbroken at the loss of his favorite green crock. rowan was still traumatized and clung to me as if the ground was hot lava.

i picked them both up and started the long walk back.


past the clean and pleasant mothers with their clean and pleasant children picnicing nearby.
past the noon crowd at the playground (all 50 of them standing along the fence line).
i could feel their gazes.
i could feel my own horror at what a sight we must be.


me. pants rolled up to no avail, covered in mud walking barefoot. carrying two very loudly screaming children.
oh the horror.


by the time we made it to the car, i could scarcely formulate a game plan to get us home amidst our mud strewn extremities.

i learned my lesson.


goodbye haughty "i'm a great mom" attitude.
hello shoes with laces for future mud walking :)