St. Patrick's Day - a day to celebrate mothering other peoples' children.

So. I have two pet peeves. Probably more. But the two prevalent ones are these:

1. I hate when people think I did something that I didn't do. That drives me nuts.

2. I hate having to mother other peoples' children. Except for my neice and nephews. I have no problems helping them with stuff. But kids who aren't related to me. Yesterday, Breckyn was over playing with Dylan, and I had to tie his shoes for him. And it just... got under my skin. I know it's dumb. But there you have it. I'm too stressed out with my own children. I don't need to put band-aids on other peoples' children, tie their shoes, feed them, etc. I don't have the time or the patience. I have enough on my plate as it is.

St. Patrick's Day of 2010 will always be remembered as The Day I Had To Mother a Kid I've Never Even Met Before.

My mom was watching Nat's kids while Nat taught piano that day, so she called me after my kids got home from school and asked if we wanted to go to our local park together. It was sooooooo warm and sunny, so I said H yes, and we met her and the kids there. The park is only half a block away from my house.

The park is also where all the kids get off the bus. Sometimes I have to pick Dylan up from the bus stop and go to pick up Sades at preschool. There is always some girl - she looks to be maybe 10 years old or so - and she is always waiting at the park for her friends, or cousins, or whatever. She must go to the other school, which gets out like an hour before our school. Anyways, and she always brings her dog. He is adorable, but VERY wild. He nips at the kids' heels as they get off the bus, slobbers all over them, chases them if they're riding bikes, etc. She doesn't leash the dog at all. His poop is all over the park (it's a small park).

So, when I met my mom and nephews there at the park, there was the girl, her wild dog, and her friends/cousins/whatever. Plus, a little girl who looked to be three years old or so. She had to have been one of the girl's younger sisters.

My mom and I found a spot that didn't seem to have dog poop on it and settled down on the grass to watch the kiddos play. Micah didn't want to play - he wanted his mama. So he sat on my lap. And Brock sat on my mom's lap, because he is terrified of dogs. At one point, the dog came up to us, and he started, like, climbing up my mom. He was sooo scared. Poor kid. We kept shooing the dog away. From time to time, Troy or Sadie would come up to us, crying, because they accidentally got hurt. But they always jumped right back into the fray. So I guess they didn't get hurt that badly. My mom had picked up some Capri Suns and some cookies at the grocery store for the kids to munch on, which was smart of her. I had some Skittles I was giving to Micah to eat, one at a time. (I may have had a few myself, as well. I heart Skittles.)

This little three-year-old, who I found out was named Abby, came over when we pulled out the food. She walked right up to us and stared at the food. She was like one inch away. But I wasn't going to offer food to her. Because I hate mothering other peoples' children. So I just stared right back at her. I'm a jerk, right? My mom eventually offered her a Capri Sun and some cookies. She really wanted my Skittles, but I said, "Nope, those are for my son." That didn't stop her from asking for them continually. She drank, like, two Capri Suns, and she wanted more, but my mom was like, "You can't have any more. These are for my grandkids." So she settled down on the blanket with us. She just sat right by us and kept eating cookies. She wasn't wearing any shoes - just socks. The older girls who she was with would check on her from time to time, but not very much. They were too busy walking around and gossiping. At one point, I looked up, and I realized that the older girls were gone. They left this little girl there at the park, with strangers!!! I was like, Are you KIDDING me???

Eventually, the girls came back, and we got sick of mothering her and shooing the dang dog away, so we packed up and left.

Two funny things that happened while we were there:

1. Jake got into his car (my mom drove Nat's car so she wouldn't have to move car seats around), somehow locked himself in, and couldn't figure out how to get out. The gossipey girls came up to Mom and said, "Um, we think your grandkid locked himself in your car." Sure enough, there he was, in the passenger side, crying, screaming, and pounding the windows, but we couldn't hear him. It's funny to see people screaming but being unable to hear them. Mom pushed the unlock button, and we told the girls to make themselves useful and go open the door for him. He slumped away with his hands in his pockets - I think he was embarrassed. But he recovered quickly and started playing on the big toy again.

2. I think Brock was picking his nose, because he had a little smear of blood on his finger. But his nose wasn't dripping, you know? Or running in blood or anything. So I knew it wasn't a bloody nose. But he saw the smear of blood on his finger and started freaking out. "I need a kleenex! I need one right now! RIGHT NOW!!" Mom and I were packing things up at that point, so we said, "Just a minute, we'll check your car in a minute for a kleenex..." He was so mad that we weren't doing something about it right that minute, so he started screaming at the top of his lungs at us, "BLOOD! BLOOD! BLOOD!!" The gossipey girls turned and looked at us like, "What is going on?" It was funny.

It really was wonderful to be in the sun, though. I even got a little sunburned. At one point, I was like, gosh, I should have put on my capris. It was that hot. Now, I'm looking out the window, and we have like one or two inches of fresh snow on our lawn. It makes me want to punch someone.

So that is what I did on St. Patrick's Day.