Playgrounds Galore!

Colin has been going on so many adventures this past week! Each morning, we ran to a different park for him to explore. Some were better than others, but Colin made sure to taste everything he could in order to provide his official baby rating of each park. He has become a great climber, and enjoys going down the slide as long as I hold his hand so he doesn't slam his head backwards - he doesn't quite understand that you have to sit on the slide. It has been really fun, and he's made a few new little friends! Today he met a little lady named Elke - she gave him a flower and he took it, then gave it back to her! So cute.

I try to also find fun games to play with him around the house. For example, he loves pulling out the diaper wipes, so I got an empty wipe box and filled it with strips of fabric. He still pulls the actual wipes out, but can be distracted with the fabric wipes. We also play around with opening and shutting the doors. I caught a video of this little jerk shutting me in the closet. So it begins.

Some around-the-house favorites also include begging for anything that I happen to be eating, and banging on the sliding glass door when I am outside getting his froggy pool ready for him to swim.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Colin has gotten pretty brave in the pool and will "jump" in by himself. This week in swim class Ms Diane wanted to encourage that as much as possible! I could tell he really wanted to jump, but was still a little unsure of the whole thing. Colin did step off a couple times but he wasn't overly eager. I honestly cannot blame him, that would be so scary! I know he'll work up the courage to do it every time eventually and then we will ALL be in trouble.

I wanted to get outside this weekend, but it was so hot! We ended up going to a park relatively close to our house that has a little river running though it, and I thought it would be a good chance to take Colin and let him play on the banks. At first he was confused, but then he was super into it. Even though he was in a little wading pool, we still had to watch him pretty closely because he kept putting the rocks into his mouth. These days, that's how most outdoor excursions end up; me just doing the finger swoop and pulling things out of his mouth.

All this activity can really wear a kid out. We are also trying to transition him to one long nap during the day and early bed time - there are good days with that and bad. Going out and about often helps to wake him up when he'd normally be napping, plus the fresh air is so good for him! And look how big he is in his crib. Pretty soon he'll be doing front flips out of the crib!