Puddle Jumping

It rained this evening. I mean really RAINED! My drive home took me twice as long due to flash flooded roads on my normal route. But when I got home, the down pour was just a light rain and the sun was breaking through the clouds. 

I walked in the front door, my husband and I exchanged a quick kiss as he left to teach class, and I went to the bedroom to change. Normally I would proceed to the kitchen to start dinner but not tonight. I told the kids to put on their shoes, fitted the dog with his leash, and headed outside.

We stepped off our front steps and Micah and Lucy exclaimed in unison “Mom, it’s raining!” Yes children, it is and we are going to enjoy it. I started down our walk as they stayed on our stoop, hand in hand, with puzzled looks on their faces. “C’mon kiddos,” I urged. Micah protested, “But mom, we’ll get wet.” “Exactly son, that is my plan.”

They cautiously stepped off our stoop and followed me down our walk until I stopped at a puddle about the size of a placemat. “Jump!” Lucy gingerly hopped into the puddle. Micah kept walking, probably not hearing me over the inner dialog I’m sure he always has going on in his head. “Micah, come jump in the puddle.” He twirled around, raised one eyebrow at me as if to ask "have you lost your mind?" His expression then changed into a determined grin as he bounded in to the puddle yielding a hearty splash. 

The three of us (four of us if you count the reluctant dog) proceeded to jump in puddles around our neighborhood for the next 30 minutes. I could say I did it for the kids but I had just as much fun as they did. The rain, the splashes, the giggles—I could have leaped and splashed until it dark. However, the kids were getting tired, the dog had enough, and Lucy’s pants were falling down because of the weight of the water that soaked in to them and her lack of a tush. 

I haven’t puddle jumped in probably 25 years. I remember running up and down the curb and gutter of our street with my brothers and the other neighbor kids after a heavy rain. It pooled at the bottom of the hill in a neighbor’s driveway so we simulated swimming in the 1- to 2-inches of standing water. I can only imagine the variety of filth we were wading in but as far as I know, we all grew up into happy, healthy adults. 

I guess that was my goal with tonight’s activity—raising happy, healthy children into happy, healthy adults. After showers, dinner, snuggles, and two sound asleep kiddos, I feel that I met that goal tonight.

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