Moments of Exploration

We have been unusually blessed with warm weather the past few days. Which is wonderful since last month we only had one day above freezing. We took advantage of the warmth and went outside. We played in the yard which absolutely thrilled Star. Even the cat seemed extremely excited.

The cat is in the tree avoiding an extatic and screaming toddler.

We decided to go for a walk which led us to the end of our road, where there was an interesting noise. Star quickly discovered a small river ending into a storm drain. Being the ever curious toddler she wanted to see what was making all the noise.

We looked in the drain.


We poked at the water. We watched things float down stream.

And as you all could imagine this was not enough for Star. She needed to be IN the water. She needed to splash.The splashing quickly led to running up and down the river all the while splashing.

Now at this point my mother brain is in high gear. I'm thinking Oh no, think of all that muddy water and having to get the clothes off in the house, then wash them. Plus she might fall and hurt herself, this should probably stop.

This is the point where I always struggle. As a mom it is hard for me to just sit back and let things happen sometimes. I mean really, what harm is a little mud going to do. And how injured could she really get. She was having a lot of fun, do I really need to stop it. It was at this point in my thinking that I noticed something. My daughter wasn't just randomly running back and forth in the water. She was actually conducting an experiment. She had noticed that when she ran toward the drain, it created enough force to cause more water to pour into the drain creating a larger, louder splash. She was doing this over and over again waiting for the big splash. Well, I learned my lesson. Sometimes we as adults hinder our children for what we may think is their better interest. Next time, I think I'll join her.
I did happen to catch this all on video, if you'd like to watch. I know its my child but it sure put a smile on my face. Enjoy!