Growing

Today on a whim I took Ian to the park. My initial motivation was just for me to get a little exercise, and since I think Yorba Regional Park is one of the most beautiful places around, it seemed like an ideal spot. I thought I was pushing it a bit. After all, I'm too cheap to pay for parking, so we left the car at the softball fields and walked in. In spite of the fact that Ian was close to his lunchtime (which is usually followed immediately by a nap), I decided to walk pretty far in. I realized this could be a bad move. My point was to force myself to get a little extra distance, but of course that also meant if he had a meltdown it would take me that much longer to get back to the car.

But shoving all common sense aside, I threw Ian in the stroller, grabbed the diaper bag, and took off. Eventually I decided to stop at one of the playgrounds. Granted, it was for much older kids, but since there was no one else there, I figured we'd see what we could get out of it. Ian surprised me. He took off climbing up the stairs quite happily, and when I helped him on the slide, he got the hugest grin on his face. By the time we left about half and hour later, he had totally conquered the stairs and knew exactly want he wanted to do when he got to the slide. He needed a little help getting turned around so he could go down on his tummy (feet first), but he sure tried to do it all on his own. A couple more trips to the park and I have a feeling he'll be a master.

He had so much fun, he didn't even seem to realize what time it was. Luckily I had some food in the diaper bag, so I just pulled it out for a little picnic before we headed back to the car. He even managed to stay away for the five minutes it took us to get home. Now he's sleeping soundly.

I can't believe that it was only 9 months ago he was just a little scrunchy newborn. It has been so much fun watching him grow and learn. I never realized how many little skills we have to master to get to even simple things like going down a slide. Everyone keeps saying, "Oh, just wait until he's walking; then your life will never be the same!" Like that's a bad thing. I'm chasing after him all the time as it is; how nice if he could actually go outside and walk on his own! I'm looking forward to little walks around our complex. And when we go to the park in a couple months, who knows what he'll be doing?