Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Attack of the killer ducks

Today was a pretty frustrating day, overall. Nothing huge, just little things that added up to some tension by evening.

But before I vent about everything I suppose I oughtta explain my interesting title. Doesn't it sound like the name of a great B-class horror flick? :o) But seriously, my girls and I were attacked by a horde of starving ducks this afternoon.

Okay, well maybe "attacked" is a bit of exaggeration, but not much! We took some hot dog buns to the duck pond to feed the - usually mild-mannered - ducks. Apparently when fall comes, ducks end up starving. Every duck in Grand Junction and surrounding vicinity was at this park waiting for some unsuspecting little girls and their mama to show up with not enough food to go around. They chased us as we threw the bread, trying to get them to go in the other direction. I made the mistake of getting the girls out of the stroller, and was nearly pecked to death while I got Cora back in.

Don't believe me? I have proof!

I didn't have the camera with me, just my camera phone, but you can see a few of the ducks there, anyway. That's the stroller right in front of me - see Chloe's feet? She held them way up so the ducks wouldn't eat her alive. After I got the girls back in the stroller we just backed up slowly and threw bread as we went. I'm just not quite so fond of ducks now...

As for my frustrations... it started with meeting some moms from mothering.com at the park. Amri was there, a girl i've met before. But some other moms came too and I felt like they just kinda thought they were better than us. There were 4 of them and they kinda stuck together and ignored us... sorta felt like a clique from high school, only of the natural parenting variety. The fact that I had Chloe didn't help - they all just had babies, the oldest of which wasn't even two yet. They seemed annoyed by her, at best. She kept wanting to see their babies and talk to the moms. She wasn't that bad. Till we had to leave. Then she up and ran away from me, right toward the street. I tried speaking firmly, but she got far enough away that I ended up yelling. Yeah, yelling at my kid in front of a bunch of AP moms. Great. :::sigh::: So that'll be the last time I meet up with new mothers around here. I hate that kind of humiliation. That was the first - and better be the last - time Chloe's done that. I think she understands now how serious an offense that was. At least I hope she does.

And then I let Chloe play outside for a bit with the understanding that she wasn't to play in the mud because she was wearing new clothes. I look out a bit later and she's got mud all over her new hoodie. Then tonight I told her not to jump on my bed because there was stuff all over it. About that time I heard a 'r-i-i-i-p' kind of noise and find she ripped a hole in her new pants with a snappie that was on the bed. Awesome.

She was just generally frustrating today. I put her to bed half an hour early for my own sanity. She didn't complain, she's in there reading to herself.

Tomorrow is library day. I think we're gonna walk. Cora likes the stroller and I really need the exercise. We're meeting some friends there, I look forward to that. Afterwards I'd like to can some applesauce but we'll have to see how it goes.

1 comment:

jill said...

We've all had those days as parents. Hang in there, it will get better.