It only takes once...

So ever since I became a father, the mother of my child and love of my life has continually reminded me to be vigilant - to see the potential fall or accident before it happens and prevent it from happening. Apparently I either give the kid too much credit for knowing his limits or I get too wrapped up in Sportscenter, studying, or looking for something to eat that I lose track of the little guy. Well, the lecture usually contains the following phrase- "Todd Paul, It only takes once..." she never finishes - I am assuming the fragmented phrase is left that way for me to insert my own catastrophic ending (ie. '... for him to break his leg/arm/neck', '...for him to lose and eye', '...for him to knock the TV/vase/phone/other kid over' etc, etc, etc.) Anyway, over the July Fourth weekend I got one of those warning and should have maybe listened a little better. (However, if I always listen to Jenny- who, by the way, is always right- I would have nothing to blog about)

We had just spent the holiday in the CITY with Jenny's parents and her brother Kevin, his wife Julie and daughter Lizzie. Saturday was nice and sunny so Kevin & fam decided to stay in town and wanted to check out Golden Gate Park. We love the park and thought it would be a fun way to spend the afternoon, so we tagged along. We went to Stow Lake, a man made lake on the east side of the park that may or may not be a raw sewage reservoir (I haven't decided yet). Our intention was to feed the ducks, see the turtles and then make our way to see some of the other fantastic sights of the park- like the World's Most Depressed and Disenfranchised Buffalo for instance. However, when we got to the lake and saw the boats, the boy scout in Kevin and myself trumped the voice of reason and convinced us that it would be a good idea for the two of us to take two kids under age two on a row boat around the lake. Surprisingly the mothers consented (I think the wanted the kids out of their hair for an hour), helped us strapped the kids in lifejackets and of course, I got the lecture, "Todd Paul, It only takes once..." (you can probably already see where this is going- but just let me finish)

Off we were on our big adventure- and it only took about 2 feet from the dock until we encountered our first problem. Lizzie (or the Lizard as I affectionately call her) was not so excited about being 1) away from mom 2) on a boat 3) the lake did not have the most pleasant of odors. So we changed the gameplan and Kevin, who stared out as the oarsman, held the Lizard full-time and I jumped in the rowers seat. The kids started to have fun- we threw bread to the ducks, chased turtles, t-boned a paddle boat and went under a bridge. We were on the home stretch- almost a full lap of the circular lake - when tragedy struck. Ryder had climbed around me and was now in the back of the boat throwing bread to the ducks... alone. One minute Ryder was reaching over the boat, touching the water- the next he was in the drink. As he bobbed to the surface I tried to reach out to him but by falling out the back of our boat, he pushed the boat forward and was just out of reach. Call it loyalty, dutiful, heroic, whatever you will- but I jumped in after the poor little guy who by this time was hysteric and taking on water.

So there I was, standing in five feet of green fetid water, holding a screaming baby, soaked to the bone and laughing as the turtle terds floated by me. Ryder's plight was not quiet and over to my left at the Chinese pavilion there were a few Asian tourists who took notice and started to snap photos as fast as their shutters would allow. Similarly, the wedding party taking photos at the base of the waterfall stopped their activity to snap a couple photos of the man and the screaming boy in the middle of the lake. Glad we could be a part of so many memories. We got back onboard and shamefully made our way back to the dock. The girls were there waiting for us, and our greeting went something like this: "Hi guys!!! Wait, Todd... are you wet? WHY are you wet? IS RYDER WET??? TODDDDD PAULLL!!!" Oops. Should have listened to Jenny, It only takes once...