From Good to Bad

When Alexander turned 4 there were 2 things he said he wanted to learn to do, cut with scissors and ride a bike. We spent the beginning part of the summer working on the bike riding and as a motivator, told Alexander that when he was confident enough he could ride his bike all the way to the cove. Well...today was the day. He had been practicing and woke up and told me he was ready. At Hannah's physical therapy session the previous day, the PT talked about having her push weighted objects. So I thought that this walk to the cove could serve dual purpose, Alexander would get his "victory ride" and Hannah could get some PT practice. So I loaded a 5 pound bag of sugar in the umbrella stroller for Hannah to push, buckled Alexander's helmet and off we went. They both did such a great job! Alexander would ride for 3 driveways and stop and wait. Hannah made it almost the whole way...even though her steering wasn't the best. I remember standing at the end of the sidewalk and thinking, "we actually made it!" I was so proud that when Alexander asked to go throw rocks in the water I couldn't say no. After the first rock Alexander was walking back to get a second one and just as I was saying "watch out for that..." he stepped in, then grabbed at and wiped on his shirt ..."dog poop". Without too much detail, it was everywhere! Alexander was equally grossed out and we needed to get home right away. Needless to say, I had to push a now tired Hannah in the stroller, carry the 5 pound bag of sugar under my arm and pull the bike that Alexander now refused to ride because he did not want to get poop on it while he limped and cried behind me. Once we got home I stripped Alexander down out on the patio, washed his legs and feet off, changed his clothes, dropped his shoes in a bucket of warm soapy water and brought him in to wash hands. When I went back to finally get Hannah out of the stroller, I noticed she had stepped in goose poop and while waiting for me managed to get it all over her legs! I couldn't help but think about how things can go from so great to literally crappy in minutes. On the other hand, it was a nice reminder that even though my kids are growing up so quickly and learning to do so many things on their own, they still need me to help in many ways...even if it is to scrub the poop off their shoes.