Not the hose!

It's day 4 of Lovely Wife being out of town.  I'm counting my lucky stars that Ben slept in 'til 6:30 this morning.  The past few days have had some early rising.

The boys are fed, vitamins dispensed, we have half an hour before the school rocket launches.  Ben wants to go in the back yard.  OK, no problem...that will make it easier to fix his lunch and pack some extra clothes for him.

I get him all dressed...a cute outfit if I do say so myself.  Lovely Wife is occasionally critical of my clothing selection skills (which doesn't bother me a bit).  We put on his blinky Spiderman shoes and he heads out the back door.

GFCF pretzels...check.  Peanut butter, juice box, jello cup and spoon, GFCF cookie...check, check, check, check.  Time to write the...uh oh...what's that sound?!  *a stream of water splatters across the back door* NOOOOOOO!!!  He's got the hose and and it's running.  *Sprint, open, sprint* "Ben!  Wait!"

Too late, he's completely soaked.  At least his blinky shoes didn't electrocute him or anything, and he's not very muddy.  We get some dry clothes on him and head off to school.  No worries.

But I am worried.  Did I leave the water on last night, or has he learned to turn on the faucet?  If it's the latter, then the game has just changed.  Maybe not "Skynet becoming self-aware" game-changing, but still, restraint will need to be learned, etc.

You see, Ben absolutely loves playing in running water, and as far as I can tell, it loves playing with him.  It's like he's a water bender from Avatar or something.

If we go for a walk in the cemetery (not as creepy as it sounds), the sprinklers will come on in a way almost guaranteed to get Ben soaked.  It doesn't matter what time of day.  It happens in the morning.  It happens in the evening.  Come to think of it, it is a little creepy.  Maybe the ghosts are running the sprinklers!  Or maybe the maintenance people are just messin' with us.


The other day, Ben and I had to kill about 45 minutes before picking up Bubba and another kid from school.  I thought to myself, "Self, don't take him to Sugarhouse Park, because he's sure to jump in the creek.  Don't go to Liberty because of that 'water feature' in the middle of the playground.  Take Ben to Laird Park.  It's nice and dry and he can play in the sandbox."   I may sound like a spoilsport, but I didn't have any back-up clothes for him.

We headed to Laird and got out to find a group of junior high kids milling about in the middle of the park.  Odd...school's not out yet.  Is it a flash mob?  Hmmm, there's a fire truck over there and it looks like they're hooking up to a hydrant.  Aieeee!  They're turning the hose on the children!

Ben's in the lower left, sopping wet.

It was pretty cool actually, and Ben had a blast.  Happy Trouble.