The world in the backyard

I grew up on Bringard street in Detroit.   It was in a cookie cutter bungalow lined in rows with other cookie cutter bungalows, all built in the 40's.  Each had a detached garage and that left a backyard about the size of the deck at the house I live in now.  

Even if 16248 Bringard didn't have the biggest backyard, I remember every spot in it, down to the finest detail.    From the sandbox to the electric pole next to it, to the space behind the detached garage that was an alley in the 1950's and a place to unsuccessfully grow tomatoes in the 1970's.

This comforts me when I look at our backyard now.    It's by no means the biggest or the best, but there is a lot of room for adventure.   There are more than enough nooks and crannies and places to cause trouble. 

Teddy Bear Straitjacket

Nate never really had a winter coat during the first year.   Instead we had a baby bunting that made him look like a brown teddy bear.    When he first wore it, around 6 months old, it was roomy.    He was still mostly sedentary and fit snuggly into the outfit.   He was cozy and appropriately cute.

Nate changed a lot before the weather got better.   His activity, size and personality all increased exponentially over the winter.   Unfortunately, we still squeezed him into the bear outfit in March, as he approached a year old.  Nothing about Nate fit into the suit at that time, and it made me feel guilty every time I saw him squeezed in there.  Putting him in the suit the last few times was like putting him in a strait jacket.   He'd usually be in constant motion, and our job was to immobilize each limb in the bear suit till he was just a face pushing out of the front.

If you wanna to be dumb, then you gotta be tough

Boys have this impulsive curiosity that you typically don't see in girls or well adjusted adults.  It's because of this curiosity that even the smartest boys can do some dumb stuff.   I know this, if only because I was once a boy.   As a boy, I wasn't particularly stupid, but still managed to do some very dumb stuff.

Nate has started to show this spirit.   Right now, if there is a chair in the room, he wants to stand on it.   Once he gets on the chair, he's immediately looking for the next height to reach.   The good thing is that after the inevitable crash and bump, he gets right back up.   The cry is short and then he's bounding off to find the next adventure.  He's tough.  

He's recently taken up running, typically to avoid losing something he shouldn't have, to the parent that's chasing him down the hall.   He even runs pretty good for someone still collecting bruises as they learn to master walking.  

This is just the start though.   It may be a phase, but the phase will probably last till some time in his teens and maybe even longer.