Summer Fun

We have had a busy few weeks here, and I have fallen behind a little bit. Here's a short list of our adventures.

Anthony, Katie and Kathy came over to play. Anthony is one year and 2 days younger than AJ. He is super fun.
We went to Founder's Days in Algonquin. There was a petting zoo (rather a pen full of baby animals to mill around in.) AJ loves animals and although he insisted on calling everything a dog, I think he got a lot out of the experience.

I have a haning pot of green beans on the deck. The plant is loaded with little mini beans and I can't wait for them to grow so I can eat them.

I have what is supposed to be grape tomatoes, but they are way to big, so I think the pot was marked wrong. They are suffering from some kind of creepy crawly crud, so I don't know if these beauties will find their way to my salad before they turn black and fall off.

Water is always fun, and AJ can be entertained for an hour or more in his baby bathtub and toys out on the deck. The "Deck" is really a very narrow and small balcony. This is the whole thing...but it serves us well.

I read that toddlers like to "help". Here is AJ "helping". It takes forever to get anything done, but he feels like he's contributing, I guess!

OK, I think that is it...Summer is rapidly coming to a close and I feel that it hasn't even started.

and Lindsay Sidney Greenbush

While we were at Randall Oaks last weekend, AJ took off down the big hill running with abandon like only little kids can. The clover was very interesting and the space was so big, he couldn't help himself.

As he was running around, it reminded me of the Little House on the Prairie title song when Carrie Ingalls is running down the hill. He didn't trip and fall on his face, though.

Big Lizard In My Backyard

Although a frog is not a lizard, I saw Steph B. at church this morning, and the title of this post just seemed to fit. She knows why... (I've been singing it all day.)

But the cool thing is that my parents have a big frog living in a fountain in the backyard. He lives in my dad's homemade "bucket pouring water into another bucket" fountain. And I think he is fantastic.

Yum

After AJ had colored lots of pictures yesterday, and he was getting his evening tantrum on, I noticed he had green crayon stuck in his molars. Yum.

Artsy Fartsy

AJ got some new crayons. He is working out the kinks and creating some great art. He also has a new table and chair that Mrs. R. picked up for him at a garage sale. I put it in the kitchen by the window so AJ can look out over his domain and spot dogs easily. He was making some art for Daddy this morning.

Mean Kids

A few weeks ago, we had an incident in the park. A child of no more than 5 years of age was playing on the gym equipment as AJ and I were going up and down the slide. This child didn't like AJ and right in front of me- spit on him. Hawked up a loogie and spit it on him. All the while looking right at me. I was floored. My motherliness almost overtook the teacherliness in me. Which in this case was the better choice. The motherliness wanted to spit back at the kid. Who spits at a BABY?

But in my best teacher voice, I said, "That is NOT OKAY. Do not spit at my baby." And I glared at him. He replied, "I can." I calmly said, "No, you can't." Kid: "I'm not made of nice." Me: (hearing that told me a lot about what this kid hears at home) "That's too bad." And the glare went on. He ran away.

Should I have said something different? Maybe. Should I have "Love and Logic"ed him? Perhaps. Maybe I should have gone over to his mother who was sitting on a bench chatting on a cell phone far from her child and had one of those conversations. But I said what I did and then thought about it all night.

AJ had no idea that a kid was mean to him. But someday he will know and someday it will hurt his feelings and he will learn that life lesson and I will not be there to help him. What makes me sad is that I see kids being mean to each other in little ways each day, and I do my best to heal wounds and patch up little fights with other people's children.

I hope I can do that when AJ is old enough and meets is next mean kid in the park.

My Kid Could Be a Model. No really...

Aldo Risolvo has done it again. Click here to visit his blog and check out the slideshow of AJ's trip to the park