Sunny Days

We've been blessed with warm sunny weather this past week. Jackson and I took advantage of it and went to the playground several days. I'm so amazed at how quickly he's growing and changing. He can do things at the playground that he couldn't do last month. That should be no big surprise. After all, children are in the business of growing and developing new skills. However, he'll do things that he's never even tried before...like climbing those ladder-like things that are made of bars and curve once you reach the top.

Thursday, we went to a big playground that has a three different levels (toddler, young child, older child) and a swing set. Jackson wanted to swing with me in my lap, so we put his ball on the ground by our swing. Nathan, a sweet 7-year-old who we've met there before, asked if he could play with Jackson's ball. Absolutely. As soon as Nathan kicked it, I thought Jackson was going to jump off of my lap. He was so excited. Every muscle in his body tensed and he started signing and saying repeatedly, "Ball! Ball!" Then he pointed to the ball and shouted, "This!" Once I got him on the ground, he started running towards the ball. So did several other boys. Jackson grabbed the ball, ran, and then threw it. The other boys would run after it, kick it really far, and then Jackson would go running after it again. They were so sweet to play with him and he loved it. It's like he didn't even realize that he was only 1 and they were 5, 6, 7, and 8 years old. He loves playing with older children.

Friday, we had a lot of things to do but we went to the playground to meet our playgroup and to give Jackson a chance to do something that was fun for him. We brought the ball and it was pretty popular among the children. I snapped a few photos: