Friday, April 22, 2011

Spring is here! Danagan plays with outdoor toys for the first time!

So, Spring is here with the great weather! We are already having SO much fun with an active toddler and our backyard. Danagan is REALLY into his cozy coupe, balls of all sizes, and our two slides. He hasn't mastered any of them quite yet, but is always smiling and laughing to himself when he plays. Here are the funny details of how he interprets how to use his coupe and slides.

The coupe only has a door on one side. This is a problem because Danagan forgets which side it is every time he walks away from the coupe. So, when he comes back to play with it, he lifts his cute little leg and repeatedly kicks the side of the car. After a sincere effort he turns to me with a frustrated and bewildered expression as if saying, "Mommy, make it work for me! It worked last time!" I then show him the the forgotten other side WITH the opening door. He smiles big and walks over confidently. He then procedes to shove one leg in. Unfortunately, he is forced to sit with his back up against the seat because his leg is too short to reach the ground. He sits there for a second straddling the door stop and then grabs the door and slams it repeatedly on his poor leg which is dangling in the way. There is usually another look he gives me at this point, but now he has learned that he can have fun scooting with one leg in and one leg out or going to the back and pushing it around empty.


"What the heck powers this thing?"



"I funny"

Danagan has two "step 2" slides in the back yard. One is shorter and more accessible for him to play with. He hasn't mastered the turning around and going down stairs, big beds, slides etc. This can be a problem. Here is what happens when he does not have encouraging direction from us. He goes up the slide and then looks down it (puzzled) for a few minutes not knowing what to do next but, oh so proud that he got up there. Then he tries to put both hands out in front of him to go down head first, but realizes quickly that is kind of scary. He tries to go down this way a couple of times, but never really finds the courage. Then he flips around and gets one leg down, which is great if the slide was really wide allowing the other leg to follow. It is NOT really wide; in fact it is quite narrow. As you can see below he goes down doing the splits.

We are working hard on trying to have him go down sitting up, but he gets so nervous that he shakes sometimes. Instead of coming close to child abuse, we let him do whatever he wants with his toys (within reason). What are we going to do with this kid? We are both so puzzled because we were both little dare devils as toddlers. I guess for now he will be great entertainment for us all :)









Well, at least we know he is flexible, right?

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