Ritual Dip

Falling in to a fountain has now become our spring ritual. Last year while hanging at Wicker Park I discovered what I thought was the perfect place to nurse Jack...the fountain area. It had benches for me and was elevated to give Violet (only 20 months at that time) a feeling of enclosure. She was enraptured with the water and I let her reach in, only possible by standing on her tippy toes. Perfect right? Well almost, until something caught her eye that just required a little more stretch. Whoops, in she goes head first. Actually quite scary as the basin area is pretty deep. I rushed to her aid (boob in the wind) and fished her out, luckily she was fine. Momentarily flustered and soaking wet, but no tears. Flash forward to this afternoon and we are enjoying the petting zoo at Brookfield. Violet comes across some older kids who are crossing rocks placed in a small shallow pond. These are meant to be traversed and of course she needs no help, or so she says. Round one: "mama I can do it by myself" me "I have to hold your hand". So under protest she relents and we cross uneventfully. Upon reaching the other side she says "you stay here I'm going to try again". And again I reach for her hand and we go, but she is determined to be big. So when crossing this time she takes one firm step and misses the rock. Some how that is not clear to me as I am still holding her little hand she falls in. Once again she is ok but soaking wet. Ron was off showing Jack the eagle and not immediately available so I just whipped off all her clothes, diaper and all, and wrapped her in my sweater. This time there where more people around and she got a kick out of the attention (not so much me). But alas no photos.