Rarely a day goes by when my son and I don't spend at least an hour on the driveway, in the yard, or prowling the sidewalks.
Shane's upset? Open a door.
Shane's got energy? Watch out that he doesn't open the door! (Seriously, we have to bolt the doors shut nowadays or he takes off.)
It's hard to take pictures of him when the boy charges and tries to pry the iPad out of my hands, so I took the liberty to go outside and take some pictures of our playgrounds. Who knows how long we'll live in this house, so it may be fun to look back and remember these sights one day.
Our first view is the front of the house. Shane spends a portion of every day with his nose pressed against the living room window whenever a truck drives by or someone is out mowing. Whenever I say the magic word, "Outside?", Shane bolts to the door. Most of the time we go out the garage door (since the garage is magic), but other times I let Shane bolt and launch of the front porch.
Ninety-nine percent of the time, Shane hops down on to the brick walk and runs straight to the driveway. On the way, he may pick up a tennis ball or a basket ball.
Our driveway is sloped, so anything he drops on our house's side immediately starts to roll towards our neighbor's side and their parked cars. Shane loves to see how far the ball rolls and enjoys Dada playing goalkeeper to prevent misunderstandings.
While rolling balls around is fun, Shane loves a good climb. Our neighbor's yard has a wall and steps that rise out from ground level. This is loads of fun. Shane loves to run back and forth on the wall, up the steps, and down our neighbor's path to the sidewalk. Thankfully, the women who live next door are very understanding and happy to see Shane's excitement over their bricks. The swiffer in the picture is because Shane enjoys to run up and down and sweep the driveway for some reason or other. I don't claim to understand it.
Speaking of toys, here is the view from our garage. Do you notice anything? Let's zoom in a little.
Shane LOVES to roll his truck down the driveway. He lets loose up near our garage and it races down towards the neighbor's fence (or a car which causes me to scramble...it won't do any real damage, but I want the neighbors to know I care enough about their stuff I'm not going to let Shane bonk trucks of their truck). There's one funny story when one of my neighbors, Sherry, stopped me one day. She wanted to make sure my wife didn't think she was mad at her. Once, Carrie had been backing out while Sherry was outside. Sherry ran over and kept saying "Look out for the truck! The truck!" Guess which truck she was talking about? It wasn't the big one! Sherry wanted me to make sure my wife knew that she wasn't worried about the big truck, but was instead worried about Shane's wee one.
It was a considerate thing for Sherry to do. I just wish she'd warned me backing up once!
What can I say? Shane likes to sweep the driveway.
Actually, I have to be honest. This was totally my fault. Shane had been running around with the broom, but I took it from him. He sat down next to it and I would throw a tennis ball past him on the driveway and let it roll down to him. Shane would then 'catch' the ball and throw it to me, wash, rinse, repeat. It was a fun game, but I forgot to pick up the broom before we drove off somewhere.
Oops.
Lately, the backyard has become a lot more interesting to Shane. He loves to run down to the shed and go in and out over and over and over and over and over and over. It drives me nuts. By the 10th time, I want him to run around and do something else, but nothing excites Shane more than opening and closing the door. Sometimes he pushes me out of the shed and slams the door shut. Sometimes he pulls me in the shed and slams the door shut.
Whatever floats his boat. A happy baby helps keep a family happy.
Over the summer, Shane and Brogan would plan around the wall frequently. Brogan would sit and chew on something while Shane ran back and forth. Eventually, Shane would get interested in whatever Brogan had (or I would be bored and snatch it). Then there'd be a one round game of fetch before Brogan would park in the grass and Shane would climb all over the wall again.
Brogan's no longer with us, but one that that hasn't changed is Shane's love of walks. We started going on nightly walks at the townhouse and Shane has graduated to pushing the stroller himself (at least part of the time.
More on that with Part 2!
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