Groundhog Day

Remember when you were a kid and all holidays were big deals ? I'd kind of forgotten about that until Monday morning. While we were eating breakfast, I mentioned that it was Groundhog Day, and Clay looked at me like I had just said "Santa Claus came last night." He lit up and said "Can I get my boots on and go outside ?" I asked what he wanted to do (because it was freezing cold) and he informed me that he was going to go find the groundhog. We tried to explain that the big piles of dirt all over our yard were from moles not groundhogs, but he wasn't convinced. So, I let him go out and he was back pretty quick. He was a little disappointed because he looked in several holes and didn't see any groundhogs. We went to preschool then and when I picked him up 3 hours later, he had come up with a new plan. After we walked in the door, he helped me put wood on the fire and asked if he could go get the shovel. I said "Whatcha gonna do with a shovel ?" He said the groundhogs were deep in the holes so he would have to dig them out. I told him we really didn't need to make the holes bigger, because people might trip and fall in them. I reminded him that not too long ago, Nana came over and fell in a hole and got a huge black eye. Not to be deterred, he countered "But Mom, Nana never goes in the back yard where I'm gonna dig !" I finally let him go dig after he assured me he would put all the dirt back in the holes. I figured it would wear him out and he would take a good nap later. He stayed out for about 30 minutes digging, but he never could get to the groundhog. He did put most of the dirt back in the holes. He was a little disappointed, but he was happy that he at least got to get dirty even if he didn't see the groundhog.