A "quiet" Sunday morning

William slept in until 8:00am Sunday morning!!  Totally unheard of.  That kid is usually up at 'em by 7:00 at the latest...  And it's more awesome because Sundays are "mommy morning" days - so I didn't have to get up until 8am either.  Gotta love him.

I completely forgot that Sunday is cinnamon roll breakfast day - how I forgot when it's been that day for well over a year now - but I did and gave the munchkin vanilla yogurt.  He loves it.  He gets to use a spoon like a big boy and he didn't ask for cheese for once in his life.  I'm going to blame the whole thing on him sleeping late - I was pretty sure none of it was even real.

Usually Sam would get to sleep an extra hour after me and the baby get up but at 8:30 I told Sam he better get up soon or he was going to feel like he missed his whole day.  And that's true.  If I'd let him sleep until 9 he would've been ticked off and wondering what happened all day long.  He got up, made a bagel, and then we were off to the park.  The idea being that it wouldn't be hot, William wouldn't need sunscreen and a hat, and there wouldn't be gobs of people not watching their children stomp all over my little kid.  Just saying.

We got there a little after 9am I think and it was great.  Except for the massive amount of trash everywhere.  Seriously.  It was disgusting.  We were constantly saying "No" "Trash"  "Yuck Yuck".  I guess the city doesn't want to work on Saturday, but you would think with such a high profile park/playground - they would make a little effort.  Whatever.  Maybe I'll start a Sunday morning clean up group.  Moving on.  William went down a slide, cleaning up pollen and dew with his navy pants (second pair of the day already - the yogurt mysteriously got on his previous gray ones...).  So, we gently pointed him to the swings.

In the past couple weeks he hasn't been able to get a turn on the good baby blue swing - he always has to go to the red one.  So, of course, he made a bee-line for the red one even though there was no one else to take his turn and Sam had to pick him up and carry him back to the good swing.  And all is wonderful.  He's kicking and laughing - we're taking pictures (with Sam's parents' camera) and it's turning into a really fun morning.

And then this kid (who I thought was 19 or 20) walks in to the park.  I thought it was a little strange that he would even be awake, and Sam was afraid we were about to be robbed because we had the camera out, but he just crossed in front of us like he was taking a short cut to the other side or something.  But then he knocks over the trash that was piled way high on the trash can that was about 20 feet from where we were swinging.  I said "Seriously?!" because the park was already trashed and now there is even more on the ground - kids are going to start showing up and it's disgusting and there was no reason for it.

He looks back at us, and I swear I could barely understand/hear a word that came out of his mouth, but I heard him say "Man, I'm so jacked up" blah blah blah.  I know he said more - but that's all I could get.  Sam and I talk and watch him because it's so very strange and I'm pissed that now when we are done swinging there is going to be more "no" "trash" "yuck yuck"... Kid walks away towards the tress/tennis courts and I'm just thinking thank goodness.  Keep moving.  But no.

Humongous man child picks up a humongous stick by the trees and begins smacking the tree with it as he decides to come back around.  He circles the tree and comes back up the other path by other playground equipment, messes with another trashcan and grabs a bottle out of it.  Crosses in front of us the same way as before.  At this point, I'm honestly a little more than concerned and feeling very threatened.  He was no less than 6 feet tall and somewhere in the 250 kinda range.  Huge.  And he's mumbling.  And looking at us.  And I don't like it.  At all.

So awesome.  He's back to standing at the original trashcan (let me remind you 20 FEET AWAY!!) and he's pushing more trash on the ground and mumbling something and staring us down.  Which, we're staring him down pretty seriously too - so I guess that was warranted... ?  Sam and I both took turns telling him to just Move On.  We're just trying to play with our kid, this is a place for children, please just go somewhere else.

Well, he really has no intention of  going anywhere.  All through our "conversation", I'm also telling Sam just to call the police.  I feel threatened, this is not good, just call 911.  I move from behind William pushing him to in front - so I would be between scary humongo boy and William.  Just felt like the smart thing to do.  And I guess at about the same time, Sam decided he should call the police and puts his phone to his ear.

Humongo spooky kid didn't like that and threw the bottle he was holding at Sam.  I just heard the thud from Sam swatting it away and it hitting the ground.  Next thing I know - Sam has charged humongo spooky kid and is yelling bloody murder at him while chasing him towards Cherokee Ave.  He made quite the scene, and thank goodness people (everyone!!) paid attention.  The newspaper lady had seen the whole thing, one of her customers in a car followed around the corner, and apparently a whole slew of other people were actual witnesses.

I was more than a little stunned at the whole thing.  I quickly picked up William out of the swing and held him close as we watched his Daddy chase the bad man.  Not ashamed to say, I really was pretty scared at this point.  Started crying - I was so startled by all of it.  Never seen my husband act like that, but so thankful at the same time.  I really wasn't sure where any of it was going and even more happy I had the forethought to put myself between bad man and the baby.

Spooky kid stayed on the walking path and stopped running at some point - so Sam could slow down and call 911.  He used the words "Lakebottom Park" and "assaulting people" and the cops showed up pretty quickly.  Also  good.  Apparently the kid was only 15 years old and both the cops who showed up had arrested him on two separate occasions and liked him for other crimes.  Awesome.

Maybe about 20 minutes later, not sure - time kinda stands still or moves insanely fast at the park chasing a busy boy, he walks back.  He won't let me go give a statement.  Says the cops are finishing up, and that the kid will probably be released to his mother since the chances of getting him in YDC are pretty slim...  Boo - I think they should've taken him to real jail then, but I guess there are rules against that.  Apparently Sam will get a call when a court date is set and I'm kinda looking forward to going in all of my pregnant glory and show that thug of a kid what a disgusting piece of scum he is to get into it with a family trying to have a nice Sunday morning.

I am incredibly proud of my husband and how he handled the whole thing.  And I kinda love that in "fight or flight" - he has FIGHT.  And spooky boy better be glad he was flight and kinda fast - because Sam would've probably killed him while protecting his family.  You just don't mess with someone's pregnant wife and son.  We joked that Sam is cleaning up the park one thug at a time... :)  Now if we could just repeat it without the assault and scariness to get the park cleaned up - but that's another story (rant) for another day.

So, yeah, what was supposed to be a sweet family morning turned into a thug getting chased out of the park and charged with littering, disorderly conduct, and assault.

Serves him right.  Thug.