Summertime fun

Greyson and I have been having lots of fun lately. After school and work we usually hang out close to home and explore the yard, neighborhood, and house. He's got a new play kitchen (thanks to Della and Kristy!), a few ride-on trucks, and a big wheel to keep him busy, plus all of the other random things that distract him.

He still loves to go look for oranges (or tangelos) that have fallen off the neighbors' tree. By now most of them are gone and the rest are rotten - good for inspecting at great length. He's already proving to be quite the little boy, loving the rotting fruit, bugs, and all the dried up worms in the driveway after our monsoon last month. He even noticed my discomfort after he picked up a dead worm in the driveway and proceeded to pretend to put it in my hair! Oh, the girls at his preschool are going to love him...

Speaking of preschool, he has moved up to the 2 year old room at daycare. Miss Fiona, who runs the place, thinks it's more stimulating there for him. Most of the 1 year olds in his room are barely one, and I think he's bored there with the little tots. Most weeks we have to sign an "incident report" about him biting another kid or getting bit. I'm anxious for that phase to be over!

So, am I a bad mom for letting Greyson pick up the dead worms in the driveway? I think I'm not your typical first-time mommy. I'm already over the germ factor and figure it's easier to clean him up afterwards than deal with the tantrum if I try to keep his little paws off all the good stuff we find outside. Plus exposure to some germs is good for you, right? We definitely don't live in a bubble at my house!

In addition to playing with worms and eating dirt, we also do traditional fun summertime stuff in the backyard. We got Greyson a sand and water table to play with, which has been pretty fun. I think we are finally rid of all the sand that arrived with the used table - so now it will probably just be a water table, until he's old enough to not throw the sand and coat his scalp with it (requiring a lot of excess rinsing in the bath). Last weekend, since the rain was gone for a while, we got out the "big pool." Instead of using the 3 foot molded plastic one, we inflated the big 6 foot pool - big enough for Greyson plus Mommy and Daddy to all swim in. We can spend a whole afternoon just lounging and splashing around, I think that will become a Sunday tradition this summer.

We did get to play in one "real" swimming pool two weekends ago, but honestly the backyard inflatable one is more enjoyable for Greyson - he can walk around and splash and fall down and not worry about being in a floaty or mom's arms the whole time. We're thinking about swim lessons just for fun this summer, but we'll save that for when it gets good and hot.