Moments before that, I had an impression that I needed to catch up with her and make her slow down or she would fall in. We'd hiked that path many times and no one had ever fallen in, but she was running and I sensed disaster.
Of course, I only half-heeded the prompting, and didn't get there in time to prevent anything.
When I caught up to her, poor Alyssa was standing up, but coughing and sputtering, and full of mud, weeds and burrs. The water was only waist high, but she either fell in all the way, or the water splashed up to her face and hair.
I felt like the best Mom ever!
But I did avert the "worst Mom" ever label, by resisting the urge to take a picture, and instead helped her out of the muck and wet clothes and into a warm sweatshirt.
Luckily the teachers back at the visitor center said this was a common enough occurrence, that they had towels and extra clothes on hand. Apparently some of the teachers have fallen in as well.
Huntley Meadows has lost some of its magic for Alyssa, she still has to come along with us on our hikes, but she no longer skips along with reckless abandon.
So perhaps you could say that she learned her lesson.
But I think the person who really learned her lesson is her Mom.
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2 comments:
Poor thing! How sad for her to lose the magic.
I totally would have taken a picture before comforting my child. But I only have boys and sometimes that's a different story.
Such a sweetheart! Glad you eventually got one of her in the stroller.
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