At the moment, I have some extra time - the boy is napping, the house is relatively clean and organized, and it's too early to start dinner. So I thought I would share my morning with you guys. This morning I woke up feeling unrested (Is that a word?) and as a result, I was agitated. I also managed to blow my nose too hard and got a nose bleed. I hate these - I get them often if I'm not careful, and they can last up to 60 minutes, due to my allergies. Not a great start to a day.
After breakfast the little one, Brody (our dog), and I went on our 3.5 mile power walk - the boy in the jogger and Brody leashed to the side of the jogger (and forced to walk calmly). While we were walking down one of the trails in our neighborhood, a short stocky man was approaching us with a giant 70 lb St. Bernard dog. He moved off the trail as we got closer as if he was going to let us pass. While we were passing, he tried covering the dog's eyes (who does that to a giant dog with success?) but without success and spotted us (mainly Brody), ripped himself free from the owner's grasp, and charged straight for Brody. Now at this point, most dog owners would run after their dog, but did this guy? NO!!! Instead he stood there shouting in a frantic and panicked voice, "OH GOD, OH GOD, OH GOD!", leaving me to try to defend both my dog and my child from this giant beast dog who was chewing on my dog's body. It all happened so fast, and I had the wrist strap from the jogger around my wrist (like a nice responsible mom) which ended up inhibiting my movement. I tried to release my dog's leash from the jogger, defend the jogger with my poor son strapped inside and beat that stupid beast dog off of mine - all at once. Didn't work out so well. I was also yelling at the beast dog, "NO! NO! OFF! GET BACK!" Finally because the man kept standing there like an idiot, I shrieked at the top of my lungs, "NNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" Mainly for shock value, and to get the man to pull his dog off of mine. I'm pretty sure that 1/3 of our gigantic neighborhood heard me. No joke. Finally the man came over and pulled the beast dog off. He kept saying, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." I was so furious, I said nothing to the man, walked away. Brody was fine - not panicked, and fortunately not injured. Just a bunch of slobber marks where the dog chewed on him. Fortunately, the little one did not witness any of it because this all happened behind the jogger and he wasn't able to see what was going on. He only heard the commotion. After about 400 feet the little one started whimpering. So I stopped to comfort him, and kiss him. He had the saddest look on his face. I, on the other hand am furious with this stupid owner who managed to jeopardize the safety of my dog, myself, and my son because he couldn't control his dog. Why would you take a dog for a walk when you can't even managed to control him? And what the heck happened to the leash he was on when I saw him approaching us? And thanks for standing and staring while your dog attacked mine. Thanks a lot.
So moving on. When we got home from our long walk, I put the dog in the backyard, walked back to Levi who was patiently waiting in the jogger and noticed that my son was wearing only one shoe. ONE SHOE!!! One!!! I looked around, searched the jogger - nothing. Thanks boy for taking off your shoe on the walk. Apparently I was so furious and distracted after the dog incident, that I had failed to notice when my son pulled his shoe off and tossed it out of the jogger. (I'm usually pretty aware of what leaves the jogger during walks). So I put the jogger inside, strapped him into the bike seat, and got on the bicycle. Fortunately as I was doing that, a friend of mine called just as I was about to leave. She also walks the same trails I do, and came across a shoe that looks just like his. She told me where she found it, and I rode out to get it. (She saved me a lot of time and energy) and then rode back home - about a 2 mile ride. I would have to say this wasn't the best day to do long walk and then turn around and immediately go for a bike ride with a 20 pound kid on the back - especially since my energy level was on the low side due to the lack of sleep from the previous night. But I do have to laugh. When it rains, it definitely pours. At least I have something to laugh about. My friend said that it's a toddler conspiracy to remove their shoes at the most inopportune times. I have to agree. And I'm really tired.
