"Head...Shoulders...Knees and...SOCKS!"

This weekend was just wonderful. The weather was gorgeous, and we took full advantage. Yesterday we took a lovely drive deeper into the Commonwealth and enjoyed a BBQ with some of Spouse's friends and their family's. Once Child came out his initial half awake/still clingy stupor, he had a wonderful time running around the backyard with the other boys playing with the kickball and the new puppy. He also enjoyed walking up and down (and up and down) the steps to the deck and following around his dad - because he could.

Today I took him to Toys R Us to buy a new ball, and he picked out a small Scooby Doo one and clutched it to his chest all around the store on our way to check out. "Mine!" "Ball!" He was nice enough to let the cashier scan it, and said "Thank you!" when the guy gave it back to him. It just occurred to me that they didn't even offer to put it in a bag - Child just hugged it all the way to the car, and even in the car on our way to a new playground, where he had a great time running around, saying hi to the other kids and parents. He also ate sand. I was so proud. Two issues though...

1 - I have a thing about public sandboxes. You don't know who (or what) else has been in there and what they have done. This stems from stories you hear of keeping neighborhood pets out of your backyard sandbox, for obvious reasons, but also because - true story - when I was in elementary school I remember there was someone/thing who was pooping in the sandbox. Then one day we got caught Justin (who was a couple grades behind us) in the act. I never set foot into a sandbox again after that. So the fact that Child wanted to climb in and dig with the shovel - OK - I let him have his fun, after all, all the other kids were doing it and their parents were fine with it. I played it cool. But as soon as it started going near and into his mouth - all bets were off.

2 - Quite a few parents/care givers were quite taken by my boy, we were signing and talking together, and he is very polite with his "Hi!" "Please" and "Thank you!" They would also tell me how adorable he is, and I have to say - I LOVE that other parents tell us that about him. He is after all, Mr. Personality, but also just an all around great kid. Especially when they have kids his age who are cute in their own right. But mine is cuter - BWAH HA HA HA!

We ended our evening with more outside time ("Bubbles!") and the three of us took a walk around our neighborhood. We learned that one of the houses down the block is for sale for double what we paid for ours (cool!) and that some of our neighbors have strange sculptural animals on their front steps, and our kid knows the sound that each one makes.

I really couldn't have asked for a better weekend with my family.