I Wanna Play Play Play

Sometimes I wonder how much you understand of what I say, even though I say it anyway. Sometimes I find out.

You were cranky/needy/cry-y all afternoon after your nap. Finally I decided what we needed was some time out of the house, so we would walk up to the play structure in the development near us (well, okay, I would walk and you would ride in the Ergo pack). I told you that we would go play, and you repeated 'play' in sign. Then I got interested in an on-line article about Jack Abramhoff for a few minutes. You cried and asked to go, and I said in a minute. Then you came back to me holding one of my shoes. It took me a minute to understand that you were telling me to put it on so we could get going. Then I took another look at you and saw that you had put on your sandals all by yourself and were REALLY ready to go. You understood not just what play was, but that we were going to leave the house and needed our shoes on. It made me laugh (and be impressed - it's the first time you've put your shoes on by yourself) and I scanned the rest of the article, put my shoes on and we left. It always surprises me when I see how much you know and understand after only 18 months on this planet.

We continued with our tradition of feeding the sheep across the street an apple each from the tree in their field on our way home. You LOVE this. Really LOVE this. You drop each apple through the fence and then watch as the sheep eat their little treasures. It still boggles my mind sometimes that we live so near sheep and cows, that herons fly into the fields and streams on our walk, that we often see ducks and nutria (like muskrats) and even saw a family of nutria yesterday (4 kids and mom and dad) with dad standing watch on a hill and the family near a small gully, and yet we live so close to stores and restaurants and Robert's work. I really enjoy that.