It's official-- we have a walker!

Maddox has been toying with the idea of walking for some time now.  He would walk back and forth between me and Luke, or between one of us and a piece of furniture.  But he has been hesitant to just walk-- to walk on his own without having one of us near him.  Then, last Sunday, he started doing it.  Walking around the house, like it was no big deal.  And just like that, in a single day, we graduated from cruising status to walking status.  And his walking skills have greatly improved over the course of a week.

Just about to venture out two Sundays ago:

Compared to video I took of him walking tonight (please disregard the mess... Maddox is our current interior decorator!):

Playing pretend

Maddox has started playing pretend.  It started with him wanting to play dress up (putting on Luke's shirts and putting on the play clothes at the play center) and flying his toy airplane.

Just the other day, though, he did something that really cracked us up.  Maddox was playing with a thin blanket and was wrapping it around his shoulders like a shawl.  But it kept falling off, so he asked for my help.  I wrapped it around his shoulders and tied a big knot in it right at his chest so it wouldn't fall off.  He was pretty proud of his new outfit and kept pointing at the knot.

Then he pointed at the knot and said "baybee!"  I was a little confused and wasn't quite sure what he meant.  "Baby?  Where is the baby?"  He pointed at the knot again and happily said "babybee!!"  Huh.  Luke and I looked at each other... "Is he saying that is his baby?" I asked Luke.  Luke asked Maddox, "Where is your baby?"  Again, Maddox pointed at the knot and smiled, proud of himself.  "Baybee!"  Of course, we don't know for certain, but Luke and I are pretty convinced that Maddox was pretending that the knot in the blanket was a baby, as if he was wearing a baby in a baby carrier.  We wore him in a baby carrier for a long time and they are common enough that he has seen babies in carriers out and about.  Now we ask him if he wants to wear his baby and if he does we wrap the blanket around his shoulders and tie a big knot in it.  He gives his baby kisses and walks around the house with his baby snug against his chest.  It is maybe the most precious things I have ever seen.  :)

 

Playing

I obviously love playing with Maddox, but I also really love just sitting back and watching him play.  It is so interesting to me to watch how he interacts with his toys, to see what he tries to do with them and how he manipulates them.  He's also began singing/talking while he plays, which is just amazingly cute.

Thus, witness Maddox in his natural habitat:

Sunday

Here are some pictures I took of Maddox this morning:

Love this face!

And the boys enjoying our front porch yesterday afternoon:

We took Maddox to the aquarium this afternoon in an attempt to do something fun while also staying relatively cool.  He loved it!  He pointed out all of the fish excitedly.  In some of the quieter areas of the aquarium we took him out of his stroller and let him walk around (holding on to Luke's finger).  He eagerly went from tank to tank to tank.  I think this might be a favorite destination this summer! 

Our garden

Our garden is doing well!  The tomato plants are getting pretty big and they have their first little flower buds growing.  We also have a little okra plant that has gotten pretty big.  Today we planted basil (the seeds we planted a few weeks ago never did sprout), summer squash, and green beans!

Garden!!

The wet dirt to the left of the okra is where we planted the yellow squash; the line of wet dirt along the marigolds is where the green beans were planted.

Okra!

Two tomato plants!  These ones look pretty good considering I had to cut them back to just a few leaves after we first planted them.

Third tomato plant!

And, it turns out, marigolds attract insects that attract dragonflies... which eat mosquitoes!

Adventures in moving

Maddox likes to experiment with movement, apparently.  He was doing this the other day (but hasn't done it since):

We've also been practicing our walking a lot.  He's getting very good-- very stable and he can walk a pretty good distance.  But he doesn't like to walk unless he has a destination in his sights.  He'll walk between me and Luke, or between one of us and a piece of furniture, but he rarely will just walk aimlessly.  He has walked from me to the middle of the living room (where his toys are), stopped, and sat down before.

It is interesting to watch this progression with his movement.  He is a very cautious boy (phew!), so he doesn't do something unless he knows he can.  I think this trait of his comes out the most with moving around and exploring.