thoreau would be proud

Asher's grandparents came to visit over the weekend!

Drew's mom and dad live in New Jersey and were able to pop down for a quick weekend visit.  When they arrived on Thursday afternoon the weather was gorgeous, so we headed on over to our local park for some play time.

Ash rode in the swing for awhile, the decided to take his grandparents for a walk and show them the sights. 

Look at my big boy leading the way!

Asher still doesn't take many independent steps, but he does love to walk with a little assistance.

That, however, is where the fun times ended.

This particular park is a little unusual because it has lots of ride-on and walk behind toys laying around that people have donated for anyone to use.  These toys are there all the time and the kids love playing with them!  Anyway, Ash grabbed ahold of a walk-behind toy and took off around the park.

He likes to walk with rolling toys at home, but just doesn't have enough space to really get moving in our little house.  The big expanse of the park was so exciting for him!  A few steps into his fun, however, another toddler boy walked over and pushed Asher back while simultaneously stealing the toy from him.  Ah! 

Asher's grandfather had been walking with him and grabbed Ash's hand so he wouldn't fall over.  Poor A looked so sad and confused, but didn't say or do anything.  Then the kicker...

That same little boy abandoned the toy after 2 steps, walked back over to Asher and quick as lightening raised his arm and slapped A across the face. 

WHAT?!

I ran over to them at his point and took the other toddler's hand so he couldn't hit Asher again.  I started to steer him away while looking all over for his mom.  How is it that this tiny boy was completely alone in the park??

Suddenly he started to run, so I let him go and sure enough, his Mom appeared and grabbed him.  I wanted to be nice, but my blood was kind of boiling by this point.  I mean, this lady wasn't watching her kid and he hit mine!  Basically I pulled it together and just told her that her son had hit Asher out of nowhere {I didn't mention the toy stealing - that seemed like small potatoes in comparison}.  She apologized, verbally corrected Leo {way too late for him to understand} and we went our separate ways.

I wasn't sure what else {if anything?} to do.  What would you have said/done?

The absolutely worst part was Asher's reaction.  After he got hit out of the blue, Asher was stunned.  He just stared at this other boy with a look of complete hurt.  His sad face broke. my. heart.  I felt this profound sense of failure at not having protected him. 

He's my baby and seeing him hurt in any way - emotionally or physically - feels very wrong.  I definitely underestimated the mommy instincts for protecting our little ones.  It's immediate and strong.  All I wanted was to make it better and keep him safe.

I was proud of him for not hitting the boy back.  I know that's a point of contention among a lot of parents - fight back or no? - but for now I absolutely don't want him hitting other children, retaliation or not.

After this little incident we all headed home for some much needed cuddles.  The rest of our weekend was a lot of fun - details to come!