Happiness Wins- Part Two

To read Part One, click here.

Dani hadn't clued in on the dilemma as she happily squealed, "I got on my swimmin' soup (suit) and swimmin' dahper! I go to da beach!!"

But Caed knew something was awry, "Why is the line not moving? Wow, we hit TWO traffics today. What are we gonna do now? I don't wanna go home!"

Where, oh where, was my thinking chair when I needed it? (And by thinking chair, I really mean the iPhone I continue to drool over and will probably not own until the price drops BELOW the cost of an actual thinking chair).

I called home and sheepishly asked Larry for yet another favor--to Google "spraygrounds." This of course resulted in a wealth of information on spraying our vast estate grounds for the purpose of organic pest prevention. I chalked it up to another failed attempt at surrogate googling.

So we took a Chance (which just so happens to be best buddies with The Flow, and so, by association, another shady character I'm not so fond of). And we headed to a park where I "had thought I'd heard somewhere that there was a wading pool." (Sounds real promising, right?)

I tried to manage expectations, particularly in response to the four year old's exclamation, "Hurray, we're going to a water park! Just like at FunTown/SplashTown!"

Um, no. We're going to a regular park. And there might be some ducks. And maybe some water for getting your feet wet. And if all else fails, we'll get ice cream. (Yeah, I used the ice cream card right up front. Because I was pretty sure I was gonna need some by this point.)

And guess what? Chance and the Flow totally delivered this time. Because the park? It was a double scoop of fun with sprinklers on top.
The kids wasted no time in getting wet and in challenging the fountains to "water boxing." It was a game they always won, except the one time when the water shot right up Caed's nose. And then it was just a tie.



After countless rounds of water boxing, Caed exclaimed as we dripped our way back to the car, "Seeee....Happiness WINS!"

Amy and I laughed and asked him what he meant. We thought he was still talking about water boxing. "Where did you hear that, Bud?" I questioned.

"From you!" he giggled and went on to recount what I had told him last week.

Ah yes. Now I remembered. He had been in a grumpy mood and "couldn't stop being cranky", so I told him that when we feed the good and choose to be happy and thankful, the happiness grows bigger and bigger. But if we feed the bad and choose to complain and focus on the bad stuff, the grumpiness grows bigger and bigger. So we've gotta feed the good stuff so it gets bigger and beats out the bad stuff.

Dear words of mine, how is it that you can and will be used against me to convict my flow-hating, chance-evading, plan-clinging, grumpy-slinging self?

But Caed (and my Last Week Self) were absolutely right. Happiness really does win. Especially when you repeatedly choose it, feed it and let it grow.

And feeding it with ice cream cones doesn't do any harm either.