Muddy boots and dandelions

The other day, I was outside with my 3 1/2 year old, just exploring our yard and talking about trees, bugs and weeds, when he spotted three mud puddles grouped together. He loves jumping in puddles more than he loves cookies, and that’s saying a lot. So, he naturally ran right over and jumped right in without any hesitation.

The muddy water splashed up over his boots and onto his pants. I started to say, “Oh, nooo, don’t — “ and then caught myself because really…why not?! So what, that I would have to change his clothes and clean his boots. So what, that I would have to probably toss him in the bath because the mud was definitely finding its way inside his socks, and he showed no sign of wanting to stop jumping. As he kept splashing and laughing, I watched a little muddy water spray up and onto his cheek and I laughed, because it didn’t even bother him. He just kept going, and he was so happy.

As I watched him, I started thinking about how these are the things that make a kid a kid. This is the time in his life that he can jump into a muddy puddle and someone else will take care of the messy result of the fun he had. And, it was beautiful to watch his calculated jumps and joy when the splashes would get bigger and bigger as he adjusted the strength of his landings.

He jumped and jumped, and jumped. Once he was satisfied with how covered in mud he was, he walked over to a dandelion and plucked it from the ground. He brought it right to me.

“Here Mommy, a — what’re these called again?”

“Dandelions”, I said, while taking the flower (weed) from his mud-spotted hand.

“Oh, right…dandelions. Well here, mommy. I love you.”

He said those three words with such emphasis and warmth that I just about melted into a puddle myself, right then and there. And, I wondered if I would have received such a gift if I had stopped him from puddle jumping. I decided I probably wouldn’t, because the puddles were the only reason he saw that dandelion.

We went inside, put the “flower” into a tiny vase (shot glass), and I rode the high from that random gift/I love you all throughout peeling off his muddied clothes, starting his bath, scraping the earth from his boots, scrubbing them clean and setting them outside to dry.

Looking forward to the next rainy day.