Sand and Cars

So, I’m not sure how this is gonna work…thanks to my dad I’ve upgraded to Windows 7, and thanks to my sister I found Windows Video Editor, and thanks to windows, I’ve also found some other nifty programs, one being this blog editor I’m currently attempting to edit my blog with. At the moment, I’m a bit nervous that I’ll have to redo all this (Which I'm now doing 4 hours later...).

But anyway, to the topic at hand: Sand and Cars! We got Ben a case (like 8?) of matchbox cars, a pretty sweet one at that (bulldozer, now gone…I’ll add that story to the end of the blog, fire truck (also MIA), police car, shelby convertible, dune buggy, jeep (MIA), etc) and he’s moved on from his washer obsession to a car obsession.

We play cars. Constantly. If I go off to prepare lunch, after 3 seconds I have a little one at my knee holding a car up for me to drive. I really don’t have a choice in the matter; it’s either play cars with the lad, or do something necessary, like prepare food, and risk the sad face. And you do NOT want to see the sad face.

And now to the sand. Every morning we’ve been going to the gangster park to hang out with the other little ones (A nanny usually brings 4 to 6 kids with her there in the mornings, and other nannies come with 1 or 2 kids much of the time as well). It’s good cause Ben needs to get some kiddie interaction and some practice sharing in. He’s not too bad at sharing at the moment, but I’m sure that will change.

Most of the time Ben drives his dump truck around or a bulldozer (either his matchbox one or another plastic one that’s already there), but sometimes he’ll help dig a hole with the kids or just sit and watch what they are doing. Occasionally he’ll enlist my help for climbing the jungle gym in the middle of the sand area. I just make sure his feet don’t slip by bracing them when he gets them on the bar and he does the rest by himself, he’s getting quite good at it.

Today there was some interesting action at the park. I was talking with a lady who had recently moved to Middleton about her dog, and her sisters dog and other things. I was mainly keeping an eye on Ben, so I only heard a snippet of her sentence which included the words, “but she’s not good around kids.” I remember saying, ah, that’s not good, and then, as the meaning of those words slowly penetrated my brain, thinking, ah, that’s really not good….this lady has a kid, is it her dog she’s talking about? I had Ben pet him….

And shortly thereafter is when we heard a sharp bark, a growl and a little girl’s scream.

I look over and see the dog standing over a 2 year old girl, barking, as she’s screaming and crying on the ground.

Many things happened at that point, but what I really noticed was that the lady was almost nonchalant about it. Either she was new to being a dog owner, for some reason didn’t think that her dog that wasn’t good around kids would hurt a kid, or is an alien posing as a mom. Tough to say really, but regardless, she pulled her dog away and stood there rather dumbly muttering something about it’s ok. Which it wasn’t.

The girl had a large tear down her arm along with 8 to 12 or so puncture wounds. The lady with the dog went home (she lived across the street), and the girls mom came and took her to the hospital. She behaved quite well…I suppose that’s the mom’s job. I would made sure Ben wasn’t dying and then made sure that the dog was.

Anyway, I have to go now, Ben’s up and there’s a car on my leg.

(PS, I don’t like this program for blog editing!)

(PPS, these last 4 pictures were taken when the girl on the jungle gym was trying to show Ben how to smile. He tried.)

(PPPS, the kid who’s mom had the dog was holding Ben’s bulldozer when it happened, and then she pulled him away and went home. I gave him back 2 of his toys, but I didn’t see the bulldozer in his hand. I looked around the park sand where he was, but couldn’t find it. RIP bulldozer.)