Splashing in Mud Puddles

During the extraordinarily dry weather, my son became a pro at finding puddles wherever he could (usually the water that had overflown from people watering their plants). Toddlers seem to almost instinctively know that puddles are for making messes. He loved stomping and banging his hands on the ground to splash the water.

The joy on his face reminded me of a clip I saw on The Doctor’s TV Show last summer about the Muddy Puddles Project. This project reminds us that we should “Let your kids jump in muddy puddles! Let them get wild with finger paints and glitter. Soon they’ll be all grown up and see dirty clothes and wet shoes as nothing but a nuisance. Help them find joy in the simple things that we no longer appreciate as adults.”

I love their message. And it is something I try to remember during those moments when there is more finger paint on my kid than on the paper, more yogurt on his face than in his mouth, and more sand in his shoes than ever. The Muddy Puddles Project was inspired by Ty Campbell, a boy who passed away at the tender age of five after battling cancer. His story is both heartbreaking and heartwarming.

Now that we are finally getting a hint of rain, I make sure to let my son run around outside and jump around in the puddles, because isn’t that what toddlerhood is about?