Dan had gone to the city to welcome the RGBI group, taking the truck. We were invited to lunch at our teammate's house, six blocks away. She offered to come get us but I thought, no, we can walk. It's not that far. I strapped Judah to me in the Ergo, held onto S & S's hands and T & E led the way. We were doing great until the boys got a little too excited and a little too far ahead. Eli told me we should take the short cut he knows. OK. But he got too far ahead. As we turned a corner a group of cows were laying peacefully in the road, as they always do at that time of day. When the truck goes through, they get up and scatter.
When a little boy runs through the same thing happens except the rest of us were not safely in an enclosed vehicle and the cows scattered around us. We tried to get out of their way, Toby moved to the left along a brick wall, Eli to the right and I was in the middle. Toby's move proved to not be the best one as one cow in particular, one with huge horns, eyed him and went for him. I didn't know what to do. I had Judah on me and was holding onto Silas. But I ran over just as the cow proceeded to pin Toby against the wall and with his horn caught in the backpack Toby was wearing, lift him off the ground!!!! I grabbed Toby under the arm, pulled him off and to my side. Then not so lovingly yelled at all the kids to get close to me and off we went around the corner.
We got to the next phase of the "short cut" and it involved going across a very narrow piece of wood over a muddy creek about five feet down. Yeah, right. How was I getting Silas across? Nope, we were going to turn around, go back and go the long way. But wait. What did I hear? That cow mooing like he was way annoyed at us and coming around the corner straight at us!!!!! NO turning back. After some words with my eldest son (using his full name...ahem!) we stressed our way across.
As we hurriedly made it to our teammate's house Sammie, holding my hand and in extreme distress, utters "I told you we shouldn't have walked. We should have taken the truck!" I again tried to explain that we didn't have the truck, that was why we were walking, to which she then cried "we should have had them pick us up!" Ahhh...yes. Could of, should of...
Toby didn't talk about it for a LONG time. Finally, slowly, a little each day he began asking simple questions about cows. Now, he picks up a stick as soon as we leave the gate and makes a mean "swooshing" sound, something we learned was important to know if you decide to walk a street where cows lay.
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