springtime parenting

Thinking about Leah and Jason's new adventure got me thinking about parenting.

Its curious how parenting changes just as you start getting good at the way things are. When @ was a baby, we got pretty good at a system of things, actually once we left for Africa. Before that it was hard to do anything with Jonathan laid up. We had a weekly Monday night meeting. We'd put @ in his jammies and take him up in his car seat, he'd be aleep before we got through the first portion of our meeting. Slowly he'd stay up later until one evening I missed the meeting standing out in the hall rocking him. Then we had W start watching him in the evenings and that was easy. Now its summer and we're in the USA and parenting changes again.

@ is old enough to wander around our fenced in backyard while we take things in from the car. He always stays within view of the window so I don't worry too much about ducking my head into the kitchen for a second (that's going to get DCFS called on me). Normally I find him sitting in the grass playing with dirt. I don't mind him playing in dirt, I think it's good for him. He gets baths and so what is the big deal if he's a little dirty. I buy Tide.

Its also curious that @ takes a real interest in toys these days. He entertains himself for periods of time on the floor with toys. More and more all the time he sits and reads books, flipping through them and chatting about the pages. Baby einstein videos are still the big deal at our house. He'll sing and dance for them.