Outings with The Little Man.

Just recently our Little Man turned one.  We didn't go to his party because that was the day of ODD's concert & we had already promised to go to that ~ besides which the concert did not entail socialising ~ @ least only minimal socialising. Instead I was roped in for the Friday/Saturday help~out the following week.

For a year I have been spending regular time with the Little Man & having had a clutch of boys of my own [plus a goodly portion of other people's sons as well] I know little boys generally like to be outside & very active so I have moved my middle~aged sloth into action each visit & made the effort to get him out of the house & doing something interesting.  Just the same the Little Man was guaranteed to take one look @ me on arrival & proceed to massive meltdown.  It would take him most of my visit to warm up to me...

This time we had a break through.  He eyed me a little cautiously as I came through the door, then seemed to realise it was me & came right over to bounce all over me.  Yay! What's more any time the front door opened he was right there eyeing off his stroller until the exciting moment I popped him into it & we headed down to the park.  OK.  So we have arrived @ the delightful age of remembering who our  Mórai is. ☺

 Birthdays are the sort of thing to make me fraught.  There is so much expectation ~ not from the Little Man who is far too little to know much about it but I am not prepared to begin something I can probably not maintain.  I opted to buy some bubble blowing stuff ~ inanely simple & generally so much fun for the adults as well as the children because @ one the Little Man is certainly not equipped to blow bubbles on his own.

 His parents had brought a stroller that converts over time into a trike.  We had it out several times over the Saturday & it warmed the cockles of my little heart to see how he has remembered from previous visits & was excited for the moment we headed out, Teddy in tow.

 Actually we did pretty well all round this time.  I am not his mother but we have our own routine & way of doing things together & like most little ones he is pretty flexible.

 I'm a talker.  Just because he's one & not really verbal yet doesn't mean he doesn't understand.  As we went up the big slide I explained how we were going to do it each step because, you know...heights, wobbly things...& on the top platform I sat down so I could wiggle into the chute before the Little Man sat in my lap ~ only the clever lad twigged he needed to sit & plonked down alongside me.  Not going anywhere like that, bucko!  Not sure how his mother does the slide thing but I know the ODD doesn't get on herself.

And yes, I drove myself there ~ & back ~in our new blue barina & I didn't get lost once!