Slowing down in July.

Summer is fully upon us here & we are spending lots of our days outside in the backyard.  I love having an east-facing backyard because it's mostly shaded by mid afternoon, which allows us to hang out back there without melting from the heat.  Brady accompanies me daily to water my tomato garden and has proven to be very helpful dragging the hose to me.

I haven't taken a single photo of him with my big camera since his birthday at the end of May (!!!).  Today when I brought the camera out and tried to get a few photos of him, he took off across the yard.  Away from me.  Too bad he's already protesting the gazillion photos I'd like to take of him.

Learning to stand up from a crouch position is still really cute to me.  He looks like this a lot as he figures out his balance.

Dying over the simple sweetness of my son holding my hand.

After the tomato watering was complete, we explored the yard & patios some more.  Everything is interesting to him at this age; in this case, a tiny rock on the concrete.

Favorite backyard activity: pointing out airplanes!  We live close to a small airport & hundreds of flights pass over our yard daily and every time he hears them he gets super excited and starts pointing and saying "airplane! airplane!" (his verbage sounds more like "eh-oh! eh-oh!")

Testing the laws of gravity by leaning over the patio to drag the firepit accessory (what is that thing called?) in the grass.  He's very cautious near edges surprisingly, and has recently figured out how to turn around and go down steps backwards which decreases my anxiety level significantly :)

Hope you're enjoying your summer & taking the time to soak in the little moments in life.  Backyard exploration probably seemed so boring to me a few years ago but it's one of the simplest, sweetest parts of our days now with a one year old. It's amazing how kiddos help you slow down.  And I can't complain one bit about it.