Water, Water Everywhere

             Last week I took my little guy, Eli, fishing at Silver Lake near Brighton. Even though the fishing wasn’t the greatest there, I knew it would be a nice place to enjoy the sights while teaching my boy the art of relaxation that involves casting a line out and waiting for a fish to bite. He was pretty excited when I grabbed the poles out of the car. Not because he knew we were going fishing, rather he expected an epic sword fight was imminent. As a fellow childish male, I couldn’t help but oblige his expectations, and an epic sword fight actually did take place right there in the parking lot. I’m not sure who won, but based on the size of the smiles on our faces, we both did.

His excitement over the poles, though, was nothing compared to the joy he expressed as we walked toward the mirrored surface of Silver Lake. He laughed, clapped his hands, and began bouncing on my shoulders, where he was perched. You see, my 20-month-old boy loves water, or as he calls it, “wawa.” He’s fairly indiscriminate about the type of water he tries to play in, whether it’s coming from a sprinkler, in a pool or lake, or flowing down the gutter. Most of the time it’s not a problem, but on the few hikes we’ve taken together I’ve had to really watch him around rivers, ponds and lakes. He has a nasty habit of running toward water when he sees it. I haven’t had a chance to properly fill his head full of horror stories so that he’ll automatically be wary of entering any body of water, but give me time. There are plenty of nights to tell him these stories right before he goes to sleep.

Anyway, after enduring ten minutes of bouncing and the constant chant of, “Wawa! Wawa! Wawa!” I chose a fishing spot where the bottom of the lake was visible for at least a few feet before disappearing into the black void where a sea serpent undoubtedly resides. That way, if Eli decided to give in to his hydrophilic urges and happened to jump into the water, I could easily retrieve him. I’m happy to say that I never had to worry about him during our fishing trip. It appears that my son is developing a healthy sense of danger and he stayed a couple of feet away from the edge of the lake the whole time. He was content smacking the water and trees and rocks with his fishing pole. As a reward for being so well-behaved around the water’s edge, I held Eli’s sippy cup full of water over his head and shook it while he squealed with delight over the sudden “rainstorm.”

With a hot summer well on its way this year, I’m sure Eli and I will be spending a little bit of time around water. Even though he seems to understand that not all water is safe to just jump into, I’ll still be on my guard. Toddlers are about as unpredictable as a flash flood in Southern Utah. It’s like small children are constantly playing a game of “red light, green light” with their parents: turn your back and they try to get in as much trouble as possible. No matter where I am, I listen well for a splash every time I turn my back, because Eli is somehow able to find water anywhere. Enjoy your own watery adventures this summer and keep those feet wet!