Water back in the fountain

Today, like most days when we are out and about doing errands, we stopped to play at Rittenhouse Square. When we entered the square I pulled Gus out of the "tunnel" and he picked a tennis ball and his bat out of the stroller basket to play with. After showing me where people were break dancing when he was there with Jonathan on Saturday (Gus REALLY liked the break dancers), we headed to the fountain to find someone to play ball with. But horrors of horrors, the fountain was full of water! What??? I guess Gus does not remember the water from last summer. I was disappointed, too. Most squares have fountains, but Rittenhouse's fountain/playpen full of toddlers is quiet unique. And Gus cannot climb out of it yet, which it makes watching him at this busy park a lot easier.

We were looking into the fountain, longing for the good old days, when Gus said, "Mumma, what those pennies doing?" There were a dozen or so pennies visible on the bottom (I don't know how long the water has been back but the surface is already covered with leaves--looks horrible. Better empty and with children.) Oh! Introduction to the concept of wishing. I was excited and Theo was sleeping so we sat down on the edge and I explained what a wish is, how to make one, and pulled out some pennies. Gus tossed in his penny, then my penny and then his ball and bat.

M: (very, very frustrated but trying to remain reasonable) Oh, Gus! No! Why did you do that?
G: I make a wish.
M: (And Gus has quite the arm. They were both out of reach though the bat was floating back to us.) Oh. Oh. Oh. (Wants to scream, Why? Why? Why? Just works with pennies, but breathes and asks) What did you wish for?
G: I wish somebody give Gus a new bat.

I fished out the bat, but not the ball. Gus was not impressed by my save. He was still talking about a new bat. "I go to store and get a new bat." He definitely thinks that whatever his little heart desires is just waiting for him at Wholefoods or Target. Looking back, wish-making may still be a little abstract for Gus. And , as Jonathan pointed out, encouraging him to throw anything into a fountain is probably not a good idea. Oh well. We are down another ball.