My Little and Big Munchkin

Vander and I stopped at the park on our way home from dinner last night (Dylan went home so he could do the last stair rail for the deck! More on the deck soon!). It has been so much fun visiting the park these last couple of months and seeing how Vander has changed.

We first went when Vander wasn't yet walking on his own, so we mostly went to go swing and walk him around a little bit.

Now he can get up the playsets himself, go down the slide himself and wander over to the sand play area. He still needs and appreciates my assistance most of the time and I don't trust him to not try to go over the edge. So I tend to be more or less right by his side.

Most of the time that makes sense for me to be right there, but when he was playing in the sand, I realized I didn't need to be hovering over him. He was doing just fine playing on his own and not taking things from the other kids and no other kids were bothering him, so I took a couple steps back and just watched him play.

While we let him roam around on his own a lot at home (on whatever level of the house we are on), I hadn't done that in public at all before.

He is getting so much steadier at walking and his borderline running, so that makes it easier to not have to be right next to him. He was doing well with stairs until he decided the last week and a half that he needs to walk up and down them up instead of crawl, so I am right there with him on those again.

It is just so crazy that he is getting to be such a bug kid already!

But, he is still such a little kid because he absolutely loves having me right there with him. The park was a little crazy last night so there were a lot of kids when I was sitting back watching Vander play. I saw how he would look over at me and give me the biggest grin, and most of the other kids, who were older, didn't even give half a thought about their parents because they were so involved in what they were doing and used to being at the park without mom and dad right next to them.

I am not looking forward to the day when Vander pushes me back to the edge of the playground so he can go play without me, but it will also be a good thing when it happens. While I love how dependent he is on me now, I know I will love him being independent some day too. I am looking forward to being independent too!

For now, I will enjoy all the little hugs, kisses and smiles I can get and hope they never stop coming!