A Little Time Outside

I think we we still have a few nice days here and there, but we have officially entered "cold" here in Chicago. Yesterday, Wiggle and I played in the backyard during an unusually sunny and warmish hour, and I took advantage of the natural light to take some pics.

Our backyard has a swing set and a variety of communal use cars, balls, and other toys that are kept or have been left in the yard by the many kids who live or have lived here. We haven't ever spent much time in the yard with Wiggle because he really has only recently been able to do much with these types of toys. While he enjoys the baby swings at the park, the ones in our backyard do not have a strap to go through the legs, and if he arches his back he can fall out. And one thing he really likes to do is to arch his back, especially when you are trying to put him into a seat of any kind.

He likes going down the slide, but prefers to stand underneath it or play peek-a-boo with me through the ladder.



We also rolled a ball back and forth for a little while.


He kept taking his hat off, and I kept putting it back on when it got windy. At one point, we had a fairly quick temperature drop and he crawled over and grabbed his hat from me. I put it on him, and he kept it on! Score one for good communication.


We moved to another part of the yard to play with some fallen leaves and I hid behind a tree. This is a shot of him on his way to find me.

Do you see the totally awesome thing about this photo? Look carefully. He's standing on his own! Later in the day, he stood for an entire round of patty-cake and he even clapped along. He has also started doing hand clapping and arm raising at the appropriate cues for a song from music class. He really learns something every day. It's kind of crazy to watch.

Also, an update on the vacuum front - I went into the front hall closet, aka the home of the monster, to grab a coat and he crawled in, stood leaning on the vacuum, and talked to it. No fear.