When we wanted to move out of our house in Athens 5 years ago, we ended up buying the last house we saw on the first day searching in Charlotte. The wife was asleep in the realtor's van when the bump of the driveway woke her up. She looked at the house and said, "This is the one we're going to buy." Just to make sure, we checked the inside and it was pretty awesome. Sure, the kitchen is too small and cheap for my tastes. The laundry is in the basement so you carry clothes up and down two flights. But it had everything else we wanted.
There were some other things we learned about the house in the years we've lived in it. Some good, some bad, but the best feature I discovered since having a son is the proximity to a creek. Our neighborhood is separated from a local park by a few hundred yards of woods and there are tons of trails back through there, including a wood bridge over a small creek. It takes us 10 minutes to walk back there and Owen LOVES the woods and the creek. We've been going down to the creek during Lily's nap time for an hour or so about 2 or 3 times a week recently.
The creek is perfect for him. It's only a few inches deep and fairly open with a couple of perfectly sized obstacles in it. None of the fallen logs are too high to climb over. The brush isn't too thick to get through, but it's a challenge he can handle. The sand isn't too rough and very few rocks. There are tons of bugs, we've seen frogs and minnows, and the water is nice and cool in the hot weather. I've always been worried about him falling over or not listening, but it really is some of the best time we spend together since it's one on one and we're doing boy stuff. I finally trusted him enough to bring our chocolate lab Bella with us down to the creek today. He was so funny. Calling her, telling her to come back, basically parroting me any time I said anything to her. I taught him the joy of picking up a random stick, holding it out to get the dog excited, then throwing it.
Sure, he can't throw it very far. And he seems to want to throw it directly at the dog, but the dog and the boy are both really happy to be there. I was sitting on the bridge this afternoon watching this and just happy as could be. I know, this is a rather sappy post.
But, I will tell you something I learned today. When a boy baby pees with his diaper off, you're likely to get hit in the face. I thought it was much safer when a girl baby pees with her diaper off. Until I found out the pee forms a puddle around her feet, then she giggles and takes off running. Yes, our upstairs now sports a few baby footprint-shaped pee stains.
CK
