Our Busy Little World
Mar. 8, 2007 - Two Days
I have just had two days that couldn't seem to be more opposite of each other. Yesterday it seemed nothing could go right, and today has been just wonderful (which I appreciate after yesterday). Funny how these things go . . .
Yesterday Matt had to be out of town all day for a work training program. I had a few errands to run up in the town where our church is -just under an hour from here (and where we're moving in a few months - hooray!!!) I figured it would work out nicely while daddy was gone for us to run our errands, visit a friend or two, and have a picnic in the park since the day was so sunny and warm. The girls have been somewhat on their own lately - more free play days - due to us trying to finish up the house to sell. It never works well, and they've all been begging me to read to them for the past week. I figured a nice park picnic day would be a good segway into more normalcy. Yet with every stop we made, something seemed to go wrong. I'll spare you most of the boring details, but I will give you a few. After running our errands with only a few mishaps, we made it to the park. I settled the girls on the bench for peanut butter sandwiches (on white bread, no less - you'd think I'd given them candy for lunch by their reaction!) and they were munching happily and chatting about the black lab capering about with his owner. Hannah and Naomi are terrified of dogs for whatever reason, but this dog was far enough away to chat about comfortably. Until he (I presume) smelled the scent of peanut butter. Totally off topic here, but though it may be easy to make I've decided pbj sandwiches are not ideal picnic food due to sticky messies! Anyway, the dog started leisurely heading toward us with his owner in tow. Hannah started to get a bit nervous when Isabelle turned to her and said "well I LOVE dogs, Hannah. And they have very big, sharp teeth!" Why she chose those words at that moment I shall never know, but they came at the worst possible time. The dog chose that precise moment to jump upon our table and right in the face of one horrified little Hannah. All slobbers, licks, and hunting for peanut butter. Oh, you should have heard the high pitched screaming that ensued! Hannah, and Naomi too, were beside themselves with terror. I suppose I should have had more sympathy, but since I could tell he was just being a big black lab I forgot to imagine myself in the shoes of Hannah: a gigantic black monster with sharp teeth (which her sister had just verified, of course) was right in her face. What conclusion could there be other than that he must intend to eat her? I think everyone in a five mile radius now knows what my girls sound like when they scream. And I think it took me a full five minutes to manage to calm the two of them down. Even after that, poor Hannah only ate about two bites of her lunch. I asked her if she wanted to come sit by me. She did, but said she was too scared to get up and walk to me (the dog, while chained up now, was only ten feet away). So Isabelle escorted her to me, since I was holding a very peanut butter covered baby, and I attempted to appease her fright with a whole banana in the peel. Of course during this whole time the sun had been escaping, and now it was downright cold and rainy looking. The park play was much abbreviated and we began our trek home. The day went on, but I think that was the highlight which encapsulated the feel of the day! Later that night, Hannah recited many times, to anyone who cared to listen, all the wicked plans of the dog who had big sharp teeth. I believe it was later reduced to the dog who wasn't being very polite about wanting a peanut butter sandwich, and how she thinks she made him sad by screaming, but in every version she made sure to clarify that the dog had big, sharp teeth.
Later I shall write about the following day . . .
Comments
Mar. 8, 2007 - oh no and haha at the same time!
Posted by heartmatters
Hi. I can totally sympathize with your frightened daughter! I was afeered of big dogs when I was small and it seemed to make me a magnet for them!
Alas, my fate (not an altogether bad one mind you) was that i would marry a man who loved big dogs, and for five years we owned what quickly grew to be an overly large, overly black, overly friendly labrador...until unfortunately, he was overly excited once too many times and met his untimely death by breaking free from his owner's leash in order to greet a moving vehicle on the train tracks. My son still grieves the loss of Chewy. But your story totally recaptures the spirit he had :)
~jen@HM
Mar. 9, 2007 - Untitled Comment
Posted by TriviumHeartschool
Oh goodness, that poor little Hannah! :-/ To this day *I* am afraid of strange dogs...couldn't imagine how scary that must have been for her! But glad that her conclusion was a dog who just wanted a sandwich. ; )
