MAJOR failure and a little success

Yesterday, my worst nap fears were realized. After letting Riley go until 12:22 before her first nap, she woke up not even 45 minutes later. Plus, when she woke up, this was no pleasant, I'm-awake-and-am-excited-to-rejoin-life wake-up. This sounded like more of a someone's-pulling-my-eyelashes-out-one-by-one-and-you-must-get-me-NOW kind of wake-up. Really, I don't know if I've heard her scream quite like this before. Ugh. Therefore, right now, despite a mini-fit as I put her in her crib, she is softly moaning to herself in her room. I'm encouraged by the moaning; it sounds sleepy. Let's hope this works.

There was a bright point yesterday, however. After I got Riley up, and she was still sufficiently cranky, I decided that we couldn't just attempt to do anything in our normal routine. So we threw on our swimmy-suits, grabbed some snacks, and off we went to the Glen Ellyn Splash Park. I didn't know exactly what it was, but it only costs $3, and it was something different. I'm SO glad we went because the little lady was a big fan. Her splash park experience was certainly different than that of the rest of the kiddos there. For one, I was the only adult on the "splash pad," letting Riley hold onto my index finger as we tottered around the place. It's not hard to see why the other moms prefer to simply observe. I may have gotten wetter than Riley did. I was prepared, though, so no biggie. The only somewhat dark spot was that there was a group of three (I'm guessing) 7- to 9-year-olds there, running around, getting a kick out of soaking each other and everyone else around. Now, I get it, it's a splash park. We expected to get wet. However, there were these water cannons that kids could use to douse each other. The water goes off and on at scheduled intervals. Riley and I were walking around at one point, and I look up to see one of these boys aiming the cannon right at Riley. Not at me. At Riley. I mean, seriously, of all the dozens of kids at the place, you feel the need to aim at the smallest one in the joint? And the only one who still walks like a drunken sailor, and at that, only takes a max of about 10 steps at a time? Geez. I just smiled at him, and, fortunately, the water didn't come on, and he moved the cannon when I looked up, but come ON! When I recounted the story to Michael later that night, I told him how ticked off I would have been had that water come on and knocked our little girl on her rear. Only then did I realize that I was ticked, nonetheless. I mean, really, kid?

At this point, I kind of laugh at myself because I realize that the only time I remember showing extreme anger in a public place (and, sadly, to anyone other than those in my family) was when someone was trying to wrong one of my tennis players (my "girls") at Central. All of a sudden, I turned into a mother bear. I guess I was already getting ready for motherhood. Ha!

Anyway, we did find a new fun place to play. Plus, the playground there looks awesome, too. Maybe next time, we'll start there; then we'll move to the water.

Ahhh... sweet silence. Riley is napping. Praise the Lord. And I don't say that lightly. I'm going to go do the same. But here are a couple pictures I was able to snap at the park. Oh, how Riley loves water!

"Ooo! Woah there, water!"


"Oh yeah... now I've gotcha."
(Note the offending orange cannon in the background.)


Loungin', post spalshing