"I wanna smack it."

Yesterday we took a trip to the lake. They have a big kid park (read no slides or swings) up above the shore that Lily and I climbed all over while Anya cruised around with us in the sling. Lily kept saying, “I swing?” so we went ahead and hiked the length of the lake (about ½ a mile) to go check out the tiny toddler park with a view. On the way we passed many runners, cyclists and power walkers, not one of which could refrain themselves from commenting on Lily’s cuteness. One guy even jumped up and down while giggling “hi!” and waving manically. I think he was a little off, but seemed totally harmless. We crouched down and watched a Japanese Beetle as it dug around in the sand, people smiling at Lily’s wonder as they passed. Lily bopped along and sang songs as we walked, periodically stopping to ask, “I swing?”
“Yes, Lily. We’re almost there. Look!” I pointed down the trail to show her the top of the twisty slide and she took off at a clip, running that fantastic toddler run: a cross between a pony trot and a seizure. She headed straight for the swing and I hoisted her up and answered the hollered demand of “PUSH!!!”


Your arms can get pretty tired of pushing a toddler who likes to really fly while trying to keep an infant snuggled safely in a sling. I gave up after a while and insisted she try out the slide. Big hit. Cries of “Weeeeee!” abounded as she spun manically down the slide to proclaim, “Again!” Since all I had to do was stand around and help her off the slide at the end, it was all good for me. Eventually she started showing signs that nap time was coming, so we settled in for the hike back. We left the main trail and headed down to the edge of the water, on the hunt for ducks. We found an abandoned hunk of bread and Lily eagerly tore it up into chunks, flung it into the water and yelling, “DUCKS!” Sadly, there were no ducks at the shoreline and since her throws only got the bread about a foot away from her, none of the ducks out in the lake even knew there was old, kinda moldy, now totally soaked bread to be had.

We kept going, Lily strolling along behind me as I tried to keep us headed in the general direction of the car. I had to turn around though when I head, “I wanna smack it” from my toddler behind me.



I never did figure out what she wanted to smack… or who taught her such a phrase. Since neither myself nor Anya took a smacking, I let it be and she eventually lost interest in smacking anything, dropping the stick along the way.

We saw a mama duck with her juvenile ducklings and talked about how that mama was taking care of her kids. She would dip under the water and come up with moss for the kids to eat. They were just like human adolescents and snatched it out of her mouth without so much as a thank you. Then they’d be all, “I don’t need your freaking moss, I’m going to get my own!” and dip under for a while, sometimes coming up with food, sometimes not so much. Seriously, look at the one on the left, he’s totally mouthing off.



When Lily started coming this close to falling into the lake because her feet kept going somewhere her brain had not intended, I announced it was time to go home. Since she wasn’t so thrilled with that idea I ended up hiking back to the car with one child in the sling (Anya) and another whining/crying/kicking/lamenting her luck on my hip (that would be Lily). That, by the way, is only one way to work off your baby weight.

Lessons for next time:
Park less than ½ a mile from the swings.
Bring bread but don’t give it to the girly until ducks are in the general area.
Stay clear of the “smack it” stick.
Juvenile ducks are punks.