We have recently become huge fans of everything FREE in St. Louis and today was probably the best time yet! We went to check out the less-than-week-old city garden, which includes several fountains, sculptures, plants, and these squirt-up-from-the-ground water features that cry out "Run through me!"
We thought that it was going to be too cold to let Eli run through them, so none of us wore anything conducive to playing in the water (nor did we bring a spare change of clothes). But once Eli laid eyes on the water squirting up in the air, he wasn't going to let us get out of there without giving it a try. We stripped him down to his diaper and Tim sat down to babysit the stroller (aka "stay dry") while I stayed close to Eli as he toddled around the wet tile. A small crowd started gathering as Eli began to put on a comedy routine by holding his face over the water sprayers and they would suddenly and without warning expell huge amounts of water right into his face. He'd look up, gasp for air, and then giggle contagiously. Each time he would do something silly, gentle laughter would roll over the growing crowd that was now nearing 40 or so people. A fountain that was about 18 or 24 inches deep caught his eye and he headed toward it. It had a decent sized wall around it to avoid falling in, so I let him approach it thinking he'd be fine. In a split second, Eli had scaled the wall and jumped in the fountain. Without hesitating, I jumped in after him (screaming like a crazy idiot mom all the while). I plucked him from the water and put him back down to play in the squirty things, but he cried because he wanted back in the fountain. Every mom, grandma, and concerned onlooker in his audience also screamed when he fell into the fountain, but laughed when he cried to get back into the water. Everyone had learned his name by this point and was calling out, "Go Eli!"
After a half hour of chasing Eli and soaking my own clothes, tennis shoes, socks, and every square inch of my body, I decided it was time for us to dry off and move on. Eli didn't agree, but was forced to obey. Mind you, we dried Eli with a blanket and put his dry clothes back on, Tim never got a drop wet, and I left a trail of wet footprints for the over 3 miles that we walked (literally!). We walked down to the arch, went through the landing, met people from Canada and took a group picture for them, watched several helicopter tours land and take off, talked with some people from California, and then wound around downtown until we found a little Italian restaurant and grabbed some dinner.
We finally got back to the van to head home and I took of my tennis shoes and sock and my toes were wrinkly and icky from being in wet shoes for the past 3 hours. But, it was SO worth it! Eli was so fun to watch, Tim and I had a great time chatting as we strolled the streets of downtown, and we had great opportunities to talk to lots of people.
I can hardly wait for our next chance to go visit the City Garden...although next time I'm wearing crocs!
In Christ,
Gwenny<><
P.S.- For those of you who live far away, we invite you to come stay with us for a long weekend; we'll be glad to show you around our wonderful city!
