Family Time field trips Tiny & Buba: Jordan's Furniture puddle jumping rainy day
by reanbean
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Downpour
After quite a few days of nice, sunny weather, we woke up this morning to find nothing but gray skies and steady rain. This is never a good thing for Tiny and Buba, as staying home, inside the house all day, usually leads to crankiness and fighting. T and I needed to come up with a plan to get us all out of the house and hopefully out to something fun.
So, we headed up the highway to Target. Not the most fun destination, but we needed some storage bins, and our kids usually enjoy walking around the store (for a limited time, of course). However, not 5 minutes after we got on the road, the steady rain turned into a torrential downpour. Traffic slowed to about 35 miles per hour, and I couldn’t wait to get off the road. We pulled into the Target parking lot, but realized that even if we ran, we’d all be soaking wet by the time we got to the doors. And worse, anything we purchased would be soaked too when it came time to load up the van, unless the rain let up while we were in the store. So, we waited a bit to see if it would let up. When it didn’t we moved onto the next part of our plan- a trip to Jordan’s.
We had absolutely no plans to purchase any furniture, but anyone who has been to the northern MA store, knows that you don’t need to be in the market for furniture to have a good time at Jordan’s. There’s a water/light show next to the ice cream parlor and trapeze school. And there are escalators to ride and long corridors to walk or stroll. We did it all. After filling our bellies with burgers and ice cream, we headed home for nap time. Unfortunately, it was still raining quite hard.
But, miraculously, just an hour and a half later, the rain had stopped and the streets were nearly dry. Buba and Tiny saw the sun shining and knew they needed to get outside before the weather had a chance to change. So, we put on rain boots and got right to it.
Buba wasted no time getting down to puddle jumping business.
He was all about the big, BIG splashes.
And figured out that you could make a really, really big splash if you took a running start.
Tiny was much more cautious in her approach, perhaps remembering the unfortunate puddle stomping event from last summer.
She started out with some little splashes.
But eventually worked her way up to some big ones.
Needless to say, they were both soaking wet and filthy by the time we headed inside for dinner. Nothing a warm shower couldn’t fix.
Family Time mostly photos Tiny & Buba: fire truck injury puddle jumping
by reanbean
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Water Play Weekend
Saturday morning, T and I took Buba and Tiny to wash the fire trucks in the center of town. It’s an event organized by our town’s family focused organization and tends to happen once a year (maybe twice, we’re fairly new to this group). We got there right at the starting time and were pleased to see many of Tiny and Buba’s playmates from library storytime were there as well. The kids, however, skipped the hellos and headed straight for the buckets of sudsy water.
Both Tiny and Buba had a great time washing the trucks and playing in the water.
And they each got to take a turn sitting in the cab of the fire truck.
Before we left, the fire fighters passed out hats, fire safety coloring books, and stickers. After close to an hour, Buba was ready to go, but I’m pretty sure Tiny could have stayed all day.
Sunday afternoon, just as the Buba and Tiny were getting up from their nap, it began to pour as if someone had opened a fire hydrant in the sky. The kids stood watching the rain at the window and whined a bit about not being able to go outside to play. Fortunately the storm only lasted about 30 minutes, and then the sun was shining again. It was way too wet to play in the yard, but perfect for going out for a puddle walk.
There was a nice big puddle right in front of our house, and Tiny had the best time jumping up and down in it. It wasn’t long before her shorts were soaked all the way through, and we had to double over the waistline to keep them from falling down. Buba wasn’t much of a jumper, but he still loved dragging his feet through the water.
Our house is on a slight downhill, and it wasn’t long before Tiny and Buba started to follow the little stream near the curb down to the bottom of the street. There were some fantastically large puddles down at the end, and Tiny was in heaven (we didn’t get any still pictures, but I think T got a few video clips with his iPod).
Unfortunately the fun was cut short when Tiny fell into a puddle and came up screaming with blood dripping pretty heavily from her right hand. I picked her up and rushed her into the house. T put her in the bathtub and did his best to clean the wound and stop the bleeding. Honestly, he was completely calm and amazing, and I don’t know what I’d have done if he wasn’t there. My head was spinning in a crazy panic, and I felt as if I could throw up or pass out at any moment (no Mom of the year award for me). I managed to call the doctor’s office and got connected to a nurse at the affiliated hospital. She explained how to stop the bleeding, how to clean and bandage the wound, and how to know whether or not we would need to go to the emergency room for stitches. We determined that stitches were not necessary, and T continued to treat a hysterical Tiny while I did my best to calm her down. Buba was left completely on his own during this time and may have made several overseas calls, as I’d left the phone well within his reach. Fortunately, he didn’t talk long. 
As soon as the bandage was on, Tiny calmed down enough to request a Popsicle.
Unfortunately, Tiny had a rough day today. She just wasn’t herself and seemed to fall apart at the drop of a hat. To make matters worse, she fell on her owie and it started to bleed again. Depending on what it looks like in the morning, we may be headed for the walk in hours at our pediatrician’s office first thing. Still, as T pointed out, we have to consider ourselves lucky. We made it over 27 months with nothing more than bumps and scrapes. And we have no doubts that, stitches or not, she’ll be good as new in a week or so.