Mooching in the Mud

A few weeks ago, during one of my not-so-bright moments, I gave Noah a bucket of water, so he could dump it on the dirt outside and make more mud. What was I thinking? Now we have this (rather) permanent mud spot RIGHT outside our front door and Noah is tempted to play in it EVERY time we leave the house or come back. It is bad enough to have one (even bigger) a few feet away but at least he would forget about that one every once in a while.













I have realized after three years of being a mom that it is not my kids who can't handle being inside all day, it is me. I hate it. I am not patient, creative, or calm enough to entertain my kids in the house for more than a couple of hours at a time. Then I need to go outside, breathe some fresh air, and run around. No matter what weather. Luckily, Noah and Max enjoy it as well.


Our own version of mud football. This ball is usually bright white.


Noah and I are always on the lookout for puddles. We love puddles. The bigger, the better. The other day we had a pretty big one right in our parking lot. We set up Noah's bike so that the rear wheel did not touch the ground and he did some "puddle spinning". It was so much fun. He just kept going and going. He said he was training.










In case you are wondering what happened to his wooden bike - it broke. He went down a steep hill without breaking (much), flipped over the handle bars, and fell hard. I was right behind him and consider it a miracle that he got away without a concussion, broken bones, or worse. The front fork broke away from the rest of the bike. Oops. We picked up the pieces and have been able to glue it back together by now. We'll see how that works. In the meantime, Noah rides this Huffy (Karl pulled out of the dumpster) and his scooter.

So 2 days later, Noah was riding his scooter to the library. The scooter does not do as well, though, over snow and ice, and so he fell again and the handle smashed into his face right next to his eye. This picture does not do it justice. His eye is pretty swollen and rather black. More battle wounds for Noah.

Yes, more fun puddles.
No, I did not take these pictures all on the same day. Noah just happens to wear this outfit all day every day. Outside and inside.









Clean up. I am really tired of it. Where is the mud room/garage/yard I so desperately need? Maybe next week we'll stay inside. Probably not.


If you are American, you might not want to look at this next picture.
If you are German, no worries.