Simple Pleasures

For her 2nd birthday Violet received a rain coat that was purple with white flowers, with matching boots.  It's the kind of outfit that toddlers can look so incredibly cute in, but adults can't really pull off.

Today was a raw, rainy day, but Violet was excited because she saw the opportunity to wear her rain gear.  She wanted it on immediately, right out of bed.  Violet walked around the house this morning with just her rain boots, rain coat and underpants, and a smile plastered to her face.  She was so happy with her outfit.

I eventually got her to put on normal clothes and it was nearly dinnertime before we had to go outside.  The rain was still coming down pretty hard, so she put on her rain gear.  We got to the driveway and she stomped into every puddle possible.

We went to an outside redbox to rent a movie, and a couple of people were ahead of us.  I thought this might not go well, and that Violet would start to complain about being rained on and would want to go to the car.  It was just the opposite.  She was so excited.  She danced and spun and had a great time.  The only time I had to reign her in was when she tried to pick a piece of gum off the sidewalk.

We got our movies, run another quick errand at the hardware store (where she passionate wanted me to buy green zip ties for some reason) and headed home.  I let her out of the car and she just did not want to come up to the house.  She stomped and danced in the puddles with wild abandon.  I was happy for her so I just let her play for a while.

It was dinner time, though, so I needed to cut it short.  I called after her and she ignored me.  I'm not sure if she just wasn't listening thought it was a game or was having too much fun to care.  I had to go down to the driveway to get her, and she ran away.  We were halfway into the backyard before I napped her.  She giggled the whole way.  I carried her into the house and plopped her, raincoat and all, into timeout.

While I watched the clock on her sentence, I couldn't help marveling at how much joy she got out of stomping in the puddles in her raincoat.