A Sense of Humor and Adventure

Now that he is getting a little older, we are starting to see more of Little Man's personality appear every day. He is a willful little guy (I imagine I'm going to be hearing "I do it myself!" quite a bit when he finds his words) but he is developing a sense of humor and adventure that is reminding me about all the really fun things in life.

He is starting to remember patterns. When I sing the bath time song each evening, he drops whatever he's doing and crawls at full speed down the hallway to the bathroom, where he stands up at the tub, knocks all his toys in and waits expectantly for me to put him in. While we put his PJs on, he "combs" my hair with his baby comb.

He's starting to crack himself up, laughing when he does something he finds pleasing. He plays games with Husband--whenever he sees his Daddy's bare feet he tickles then and then laughs hysterically when Husband laughs. He does things to make us laugh, especially in the evening during his wild hour before bath and bedtime.

About a week ago, he added cruising to his repertoire of movement. Now he's pulling up and moving along everything. His favorite place to do this is along the kitchen cabinets, when he orbits around me every night while I make dinner.

Most afternoons, I load him up in his new, big-boy carseat and we head off on an adventure. He is lord of the library, where he zooms up and down the rows of books, stopping every now and then to choose a book to read before starting off again. He is prince of the playground, where he recently discovered how to climb the stairs despite having no stairs at home. My days of relaxing in a sunny spot at the park are over as we now spend our time going up and down the playground equipment.

And today he became czar of the zoo on his very first trip to our city zoo. I have been going to the zoo regularly since college, and it has always been one of my favorite places in the city. He seemed to find it just as exciting, leaning out of his stroller to grab at plant life passing by and talking loudly to the lemurs in the monkey exhibit.

I have been to all these places before, on my own or with children I cared for in the past. But nothing is better than going with my own little one, watching his sense of self and adventure grow. As his world grows by leaps and bounds, so does my mine.