Weeeeeeee!

Weeeeeeeee!
(April 18th, 2009)

First let me say that I am the proud mommy of a 20 month old...HOLY COW!

This weekend Paul and I put up a new swing for Jacob. The past few months we have been tossing around the idea of purchasing a nice playset for Jacob and of course the new baby (when he gets a lot older). But in the end we decided that when we did purchase a playset we wanted to get a really nice wooden one with different options to play with. When I grew up we just had one of those metal "A" frame swingsets that rusted and was usually wobbely because they weren't installed correctly into cement.....yeah you know the ones!! We thought about getting one of those but then decided that we wouldn't be happy with it in the long run so we are going to save up for a really nice wooden one instead. Then of course came the "Do we get it this year or next year?" questions.....

As the weather started getting warmer I have taken Jacob to the park a few times and I noticed a trend in his playing habits. Of course most of these habits are because he is in only 30 inches tall and hasn't quite gotten the hang of walking up steps without someone there to help (although he is getting pretty good at doing 2-5 steps on his own but more than that and he needs some help getting down. Climbing steps is fine but more than 4-5 steps and he crawls up instead of using the railing like I have been teaching him. Unfortunately we don't have a lot of steps that we have to navigate and the baby gates keep him from a lot of practice in the house.....anyway I digress.....

Since the climbing is still in the early stages the main thing he wants to do at the park is swing, and go down the slide. Since that is pretty much it and since he won't be 2 years old until August 19th we decided that investing in an expensive playset was just silly for this year. So next summer when he is climbing up the walls, running like a pro, and more independent we will get a playset. So in the meantime we decided to get him a swing and a sandbox. The swing was installed on the underside of our deck which will eventually face a patio that we will put in (when we win the lottery! hehehehehe). Our house is on a slop so the one side of the deck is about 9-10 feet tall from the ground which is the perfect spot for a swing! As you can see from the picture above Jacob LOVED his new swing and was saying WEEEEEEEEEEEE! As Paul and I pushed him. The new sandbox has been purchased too and will also go under the deck. We have a nice level area under there which even allows me to stand up (and I am pretty much 6ft tall with shoes). This will keep the sand from getting 110 degrees in our nasty summer heat and allow Jacob to play in the sand most hours of the day without being burnt to a crisp. We haven't purchased the sand to fill it up yet but I am sure that is on our shopping list for the next week or two!

I love the nice warm weather, Jacob just loves being outside and he is eating better now too, I think he is finally running around so much that he is STARVING so he isn't being as picky with his food choices! YEA!!!!