Run like the Wind

We needed to pick up James. It was a nice day out but I had waited too long to walk to school so I tried to get all the kids in the car. Seth had taken his pants off and put Katherine's hot pink shoes on. He started screaming that he wanted to run. I thought, sure. He can run in the neighborhood and when we get to the busy street, he will be tired and get in the car. So I let him start to run in a blue sweatshirt, diaper, and pink sneakers. He ran down our street. I put the hazards on and drove next to him. He got to the corner, crossed the street and ran two more blocks. We got to the busy street. He was adamant he would keep running. He started down the sidewalk on the busier road.

The sidewalk on this road is on the east side. I was heading south and so I was on the west side. There was no traffic, so I thought I would put my hazards on and drive on the opposite side of the street as he ran. A couple cars drove north. I started to notice that they were not seeing a blue mini-van with its hazards on driving 10 mph parallel to a little boy. They were only looking out their side window and saw a pantless two year old running down a busy street. I realized this may have been a bad idea.

I sped up to 25 mph to pull into the next street on the east side of the road. It was about half a block from where Seth was. The minute Seth saw me speed up, however, he stopped where he was and started to cry. So now there was a two year old pantless boy in pink shoes standing in the middle of a sidewalk crying. A couple cars stopped on the other side of the street. I was still in the van at this time until I realized what it looked like. I got out of the car, put my arms out, and Seth ran into them. The people who stopped got into their cars and drove off. I am still wondering the conversations they had around the dinner table that night. All because I was being a good mom and letting my son express himself by running in a diaper and pink shoes.

Oh, and I was 20 minutes late picking James up. He actually called me from the office. When we got to our neighborhood, James and Seth ran hand in hand all the way home. I noticed people looking fondly on the sight now. They still didn't notice the blue mini van driving 10 mph with its hazards on next to them.