Strong to the finish

No worries...Justin had a good grip on Spike's legs. When he let go, he didn't fall far.

I'm seeing a whole new side of my boy this week. All this sunshine has awakened some sort of primal male instincts in him. Suddenly he's this daring tough guy who needs to scare the daylights out of his mom by climbing every piece of unsafe-for-children-under-the-age-of-two equipment at the playground, race around until he finds an appropriately sized area of dirt to roll in, fly headfirst down the slides, and put fistfuls of mulch in his mouth.

Brand new worlds of excitement have opened up for Spike with the insertion of Playtime At the Park into our daily routine. Thankfully, he's not walking yet, which at least makes him easier to catch when he darts away. But something about all these wide open spaces makes him want to try a little harder, and he seems to have a great deal more patience for holding my hand and practicing using his legs when we're outside.

The benefit of the great outdoors cannot be overstated. In just a few sunshiney days, I've seen his legs get stronger and his confidence in standing on his own and taking a few steps has grown by leaps and bounds (pun intended).

His disposition has improved. With less time to be bored and more space to explore, his crankiness is beginning to subside and his little brain--which loves to shift between activities more quickly than I can keep up--suddenly has just the right amount of input to keep him satisfied and entertained. Tired of building that mountain of mulch? Try seeing if these sticks will fit through the holes in that bench. Bored with the slides? Try climbing up and down these steps for a while. Need to rest and zone out for a second? Look, birds!

His communication skills are getting better. All this new stuff to look at means lots of new words to learn, and Caleb's determined to master them. He loves to watch dump trucks and other big vehicles as they roll past the neighborhood park, and he's quick to scale the steps to get a better vantage point from which to point and yell, "tuc! tuc!" as they drive by. He's still fascinated by airplanes, and being out in the open (and close to the airport) means getting to see the real thing pretty often. As soon as he hears one he stops what he's doing to locate it in the sky and make his "zoooooom!" noise. And since playing hard means more stops for refueling, he's added "nack," his word for snack, to his vocabulary this week. "Nack, nack, nack!" he'll chant, flapping his arms excitedly until I reward him with some goldfish crackers. I can't tell if he's happier about the food or the fact that he's finally able to get his point across.

Either way, we're plenty thankful for the sunshine around here. Happy Spike = Happy Mom.