morning walk

The morning coolness lingers, and this morning you sat and played by me in the yard as I weeded the garden and surrounding mulch bed. You are such a good kid. Our neighborhood walks often take us past a significant stand of rosemary. I brush over it and get the wonderful aroma on my hand for you to smell. You are so sweet. You slightly open your mouth, concentrate really hard and then sniff in, usually scrunching up your nose. You seem to appreciate the scent of the rosemary, and today I broke off a small piece for you to hold and smell. You thought you were something, my lil gardener. I hope I am teaching you to appreciate herbs and vegetables.

neighborhood wanderings

Most mornings you and I take a walk; it happens at that point when you are no longer entertained by your toys or crawling all over the kitchen and about a half hour before the breakfast bottle and cereal. Today you were irritable early. I’m pretty sure you’re getting ready to cut some teeth on the top now. There is the excessive crankiness that is uncharacteristic of you. You’ve been spitting up more, and your poop has taken on a runnier consistency. Maybe that last part was a tad too much information, but you should probably know this about your mom and dad–weirdos that we are: we talk about poop and did long before you, oh poopy baby, came into our world. Anyway, the walk started early this morning out of necessity, but it was so beautiful and cool neither one of us minded. We stayed out for breakfast too, and you dined al fresco by our sprouting vegetable garden and in the shade of the maple tree we planted for you.

You are all smiles and eager when you see the stroller come out. I plop you in, give you some hand-held toy for entertainment, and we head out. Your eyes follow birds and butterflies. You anticipate the dog around the corner, Bo-bo, who we always check in on. You wave at trees and stare at fire hydrants. You watch dump trucks and city buses grind by. You study litter in the street and reach out for things that creep close to your reach just outside the stroller’s edge. Today you found monkey grass and let it tickle your monkey toes. It was very sweet.