Not a Bath

Today I went for a run with LR in the stroller. I wanted to see just how "all terrain" it was. So I ran down to the pond and found some shoreline where LR and I could play. As soon as I took him out of the stroller I realized my mistake. He ran to the water's edge and then tried to walk out onto the pond. He claimed it was a bath and that he could go ahead and get in. I took off his mittens and let him touch the water to see how cold it was. We said and signed cold for a few times. Then he picked up some mud with a rock. I picked up a good sized rock and threw it into the water a few feet away and said "spuh-loosh!" That made him giggle, so he tried it and I made the same sound. His giggles got louder and I'm sure he could have done that all day, but he kept trying to walk into the pond and I kept having to dissuade him. Eventually, I got tired of the game and picked him up to take him back to the stroller. Poor kid started crying and if it hadn't been for the little, yellow, plastic shovel we found on the shore, he probably would have been inconsolable. When I got to the stroller I realized that I didn't want his muddy shoes inside the fleece footmuff. I thought at first I could wipe them off, but I ended up just taking them off and putting them under the stroller. Then I didn't want to put his mittens on over his muddy hands and in retrospect I should have because his hands were very chilly when we got back. About halfway back I checked on him to see if he'd forgiven me, but the stony glare was enough to tell me that he was still furious that I hadn't let him stay there forever. I am, however, thankful to the little kid who left the shovel and I promise that next time we go to the pond, I'll leave a little plastic bucket or shovel for the next child to find.