We finished up our Green Day yesterday! AJ and I took a walk around the neighborhood to see what we could find. He is so independent now...he doesn't want to hold my hand which makes me really nervous! We don't live on a busy road, but the moment I try to hold his hand ne goes limp! So, we worked on walking on the sidewalk. He gets easily distracted and wants to explore everyone's yard and porches. So, we really focused at first on simply staying on the sidewalk. I thought he had it down and then we started up a driveway to a neighbors "sidewalk" to their front door. I called out to AJ..."sidewalk please"...he promptly responded..."mama, side-wah" and took off! Uggh!
Ironically, our neighbor was just coming out of their house as AJ rolled up...Aj stopped dead in his tracks and bolted back to me. He is a bit shy around men as of late. So we had a quick discussion about the difference between a sidewalk and a driveway. And, by discussion I mean, mommy hopped back and forth between the sidewalk and the driveway while AJ screamed out what it was.
I think our neighbor knows I am a bit nuts, so quietly observed just shaking his head. AJ, of course, had to try it on his own,so, he started trying to jump back and forth naming the location...basically it was more of a big crouch down, but no lift off. When he tired of this we continued on our walk. Maybe this time we will make it more than a house away!
We got to the corner of our street and I asked AJ if he saw a tree. When he pointed to one (a bush to be precise), I asked him if he could find a leaf. So we spent sometime looking at the leaves and talking about the colors before we plucked one off. Aj was not a fan of me putting the leaf in his bucket. He stated freaking out...While holding his hand up to tell me to stop, he continued to tell me.." no mama...no weef (leaf)...no mama!" So I held on the leaf and slipped it in while he wasn't looking.
As a caveat, in case I haven't explained the bucket yet...Here it is...
Yes, I know. I use the term bucket loosely. Ever since Halloween, we have not been able to get rid of this "bucket". We now actually have 3 of them and Aj is so clever that he notices right away when one is missing...at first tried to eliminate the "bucket" and gve him an actual mini bucket instead. Yet, Aj would not stand for it. So, anytime we leave the house AJ frantically packs all trains into his "bucket" and off we go! So, if you ever come across a strange woman carrying around a Halloween bucket in the middle of July, you will know it is me! :)
Anyway, enough about the bucket! We walked around the block and collected several leaves. We talked about the sky (and its color), the sun, clouds, cars/trucks...we even saw a blimp which AJ politely waved too, and a dump truck. Aj was super excited by the dump truck but quickly covered his ears as it drove by because it was so loud. After we got home and had lunch we explored our treasures.
AJ had a blast gluing them down. To my dismay he was covered in glue...along with his shirt, the table, oh yeah, and the dog! Don't even ask! But, he had fun and inevitable accomplished his mission! If you figure out a neat way for an almost 2 y.o to glue I would love to know! I thought about a glue stick, but it would not have accomplished the job!
So, while that dried, AJ went down for a nap! When he got up, it was time for crayon rubbings. He selected a green crayon from his crayon container and started coloring. It took a bit of practice and a lot of assistance before he understood what he was supposed to do...but he got it and it was a great success!
