the joys of grass

Yesterday was a fairly bad day. Napping was difficult, she didn't want to be set down at all, let alone for five minutes. There was much fussing and toy throwing and a little hand in my bowl of just-warmed-up-soup for which I'm sure to get Bad Mother of the Year. But in the late afternoon I looked at the outdoor thermometer and saw that it was 70 degrees and I said, "kid, we're going outside." I put on some sandals and stuck the phone in my back pocket and off we went, down the back stairs and into the back yard.

The back yard isn't big. The lawn isn't perfectly manicured. It reminds me of my back yard growing up--largely green but occassionally bare from certain children horsing around with bikes and such. It was mostly shady, which made me happy. I'd forgotten to grease her up with sunblock before heading down. The landlords' two boys were down there playing with another neighborhood boy. They're nice kids, excited about the impending birth of another little brother, and after a while they played less with the boy next door and more with Gaz. It was very cute. N. went looking for a ball that was more her size than his basketball and J. demonstrated how he still knows how to "talk baby." He babbled at her, which immediately produced huge smiles and babbles from Gaz. It took her a little while to warm up to them, and she spent a lot of time just staring and making an inscrutible face, but after that "conversation" she seemed to have decided that they were okay.

But the grass! The grass was most interesting of all. After she relaxed enough to sit on the ground instead of on my lap, I moved her to a nice soft spot on the green. She examined every blade. She hasn't figured out that she can pull them out of the ground and try to eat them yet (thankfully!) but she clearly enjoyed the experience in that strange deeply concentrating way babies enjoy new things.

Then N. converted a little Hot Wheels kinda motorcyle into a rocking horse sort of motorcycle and let Gaz sit on it. She was enjoying that most of all, but she wouldn't sit still, it was hard to hold onto her, and she was barefoot. I could see those toes getting smashed pretty easily considering the day we were having. The wind had picked up a bit so I spent the last of my thumb strength holding her up over my head to catch the nice strong breeze, which more than made up for taking her away from the motorcycle.

Then we went back upstairs and had a meltdown over changing her diaper and it was back to more of the same, but our outdoor venture was very nice. I'm very glad that we live in a building with a lawn. I'm sure we'll be enjoying it more as it continues to get warmer.