May 01 2008
Swimming in the Pond
Today Zeke and I went out to feed the fish. Zeke sprinkled the food in and the fish swam up to eat it. Zeke leaned over to look at them, said “I love my fish!”, and promptly fell in. He did a complete belly flop. I snatched him by the back of his jacket, dragged him out, hauled him inside, stripped him down, and gave him a warm shower. He cried throughout all this and only settled down when I had him wrapped in a towel, holding him on my lap. I told him, “It’s alright, you’re alright, you can stop crying now.” He looked at me and said, “Now I’m going to get the throats.” (Zeke’s word for throwing up) Those who know me, know I’m a neurotic hand washer. (Not quite Lady Macbeth, but close.) When Zeke comes in after playing in the pond water, I always make him wash his hands. I tell him that he has to wash his hands, because the pond water can make him sick if he doesn’t wash it off. His 3 year old brain must have worked out that if he can get sick just sticking his hands in the water, falling entirely in the water would certainly give him the throats. I assured him that he was alright and was most likely not going to get the throats. It is remarkable to me that he has been playing, fishing, throwing rocks, netting leaves, and breaking ice in this pond for 10 months and this is the first time he has fallen in. I am ever so thankful that I was standing right next to him when he fell. All the fish survived this bit of excitement, both those with fins and those without.
I am glad Zeke is ok…glad you were right there with him…too bad it was so cool today…might have been rather refreshing otherwise. =)