Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Picture Perfect Picnic...Not Quite!

We were in the park enjoying a real “movie moment” type picnic.  The girls and I were sitting in our cute outfits on a cute little blanket looking at all the adorable birds flying by-this is the stuff that wins “Mommy of the Year Awards”, people! But, in true Kim fashion, our moment of glorious perfection was quickly dashed, but not by what you might think. 

For my regular readers, I know you’re thinking this moment MUST have been interrupted by someone’s horrible bodily fluid explosion.  Surprisingly, you’re wrong (just wait a few days, I’m sure there will be another “poop post” soon, it’s never too far off with toddlers, that’s for sure!) No, today’s culprit was a squirrel.  I know, sounds ridiculous, what could a sweet, little rodent possibly do to unravel this perfect moment? Well this was no ordinary squirrel, not ordinary at all!

This squirrel was larger than most, about the size of a small puppy.  In Florida, that’s not really too unusual. The weather is nice all year, so I assume that means they don’t have to store away for the Winter, meaning they have an entire extra season to hang out and eat bread from old people-not a bad gig, if you ask me. 

Anyway, so this “larger than normal” squirrel spots our picture perfect picnic and begins to bounce his fluffy, evil, little tail in our direction.  I love animals as much as the next girl, but don’t feed the wild ones. I remember learning in 2nd grade Science that feeding wild animals messes up their natural ecosystem and I don’t want to be personally responsible for too many uneaten acorns in the world, so I will NOT feed the squirrel.  Please don’t nominate me for any environmental awards, I’m simply doing my part. 

The squirrel sees that I see him-we make full eye contact.  I believe my eyes are communicating, “No food here, Buddy”  He believes my eyes are communicating, “Come on over, I packed some for you too!”  Clearly, I need to work on my squirrel whispering skills.  Now Mr. Squirrel is in a full on sprint towards our picnic.  I stand up to scare him away, but to no avail.  My “lovey eyes” from earlier have apparently removed any possible fear of me he may have had-UGH!

Still, not a big deal, it’s just a squirrel.  Then my girls see him and totally freak out.  By freak out, I don’t mean they scream or stand up.  No, they full-on run in the other direction, as if they saw a bull charging the picnic.  They get about 15 feet away and begin crying and screaming.  Now, everyone in the park who was just admiring our amazingly serene picnic is staring at my kids wondering who those little weirdos belong to. 

At first I was angry, but they were right to be afraid of this squirrel-he got right up on the blanket, despite me actually physically swatting him away.  After I realized I was losing this battle, I walked over to the girls, and we all sat and watched as the squirrel ate the rest of our grapes, cookies, and cheese.  As we were sitting watching this little terror eat our lunch, a sweet older lady came over and said, “Oh, that’s Squeaks, He’s terrible-he steals from everyone AND he bites! Animal control keeps removing him, but he always finds his way back here!”  We were just latest victims of Squeaks the evil, biting, food-stealing squirrel.  

When he was done, we picked up our mess and were on our way.  We’ll try again another day, probably not at Squeaks’ park!  I guess that’s just how life works, you get a few rare moments of picture perfectness and the rest of life is figuring out what to do with the crazy stuff that happens all around you!

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