softball and mud

Yesterday morning we went to Laurel to play a pick-up softball game with some other members of our church, and it was really fun.  It was co-ed, so I could have played, but someone needed to watch Jed - so I opted to let Scott play instead.  When we got there I saw that were a few other wives who were taking turns with their husbands, playing and child-watching, but I hadn't thought of that so I was wearing my flip-flops and wasn't prepared to play.  Scott, who used to be really good but hasn't played in several years, walked away from the games a little frustrated at his performance but glad he went to play.  The other team, many of whom get together once a week to play just for fun, were clearly more practiced - but our team did much better the second game and had the lead up until the very end.  Even though he wishes he had performed a little better, I loved watching him play and thought he looked very handsome out there on the field:

Jed didn't have the faintest idea what was going on, but found the mud puddles (it was hot and sunny during the game, but we've had a lot of rain recently) quite tempting.  I tried to keep him out of them for the first 20 minutes or so, but quickly gave up and let him splash around.  He promptly slipped and fell, coating his backside with mud:

After doing that a couple times, I decided it was a totally lost cause and just tried to keep him from running into the street, onto the field, or grabbing other people's things with his muddy hands.  He was mostly happy, except for a short period after he had fallen on his back in the mud and hit his head on the ground - he didn't like that at all.  But he loved splashing in the mud, digging in the mud, and kneeling in the mud.  Most of the other moms kept pulling their kids out of the puddles and wiping off their shoes, but I didn't think it was worth the fight.  It was just mud, and how could I deny him such joy???

For a little while, he was quite entertained with "painting" our car with mud - luckily our car was the one closest to the empty parking spaces where the mud puddles were and all the kids were playing.  He would dip his hands in the mud, walk over to the car and smear the mud around, then walk back over to the mud puddle to get some more finger paint and return to his art.  He did this about 20 times in a row, perfectly pleased with himself.

At one point he knelt down, leaned over, and tried to drink the mud, which is where I drew the line - all else was fair game with the mud, but drinking it was not okay.  By the end of the softball games he was absolutely covered in mud - which probably helped block the sun, so maybe it was a good thing.  We stripped him down, used baby wipes to get him clean enough to ride in the car, then whisked him home and into the bathtub.  He was one dirty but happy baby!