Stuck in the Middle

Yesterday, as we do on most Sunday's, we had a family day.  We went to this shopping center that has a water fountain feature that the kids can play in.  Little Man loves it or at least he did until his traumatic moment.  

At times the water disappears luring the children into a false sense of security that they are not going to get wet.  The children wander around looking down the holes for the water and then ALL OF A SUDDEN the water springs to life again and the children squeal in delight while the adults looking on crack up at the one child that got caught unawares.  Little Man had been playing for a while and had gotten brave.  When the water disappeared for a moment he wandered into the very center of the feature.  This is the dangerous area because when the water reappears it is with great force and ferocity.  Needless to say, Little Man became trapped by the raging water. I could see him start to panic, I saw his little legs lock up and he bent over and stuffed his fists in his eyes to block the water.  I heard his cry and tried to yell to him to just push through the water to come to me.  

Now I know that all of this sounds very dramatic but to tell the truth, I was laughing the whole time.  I did feel bad for him but I knew he would be ok.  A lady next to me felt so bad for him that she urged me to just run in a get him.  I looked at her and told her she was crazy, I didn’t want to get wet and while I had a change of clothes for him I certainly hadn’t brought one for myself.  As soon as the water receded he ran to me.  I led him back to the area where Peanut (who was sleeping, no joke, he really was sleeping – I know it is hard to believe) and Papa Bear were waiting for us .  We stripped him out of his soaked clothes and put my hoody on him to help him warm up.  He loved getting to wear my hoody and the attention from everyone around.  He also loves to tell his rendition of the story that goes something like this…”I got stuck in the middle and mama no help me.  I got stuck in the middle and then I got to wear Mama’s shirt because I got stuck in the middle then I ate dinner and got a cookie.” 

This is a picture that I pulled off of the website of the water feature to show you where he “got stuck in the middle”.  We didn’t have our camera at the time or we would have tried to capture his terror for posterity.