Busy Busy

I've been making an effort to get us out of the house more this week. We've always set up a couple of play dates each week but still had a couple of days too where we wouldn't even leave the house. That was all well and good before Mr. Man turned the big ONE but now we both start going a little crazy in the afternoons if we don't have somewhere to go. I've said before that Wilder is like a little sponge but it would be more accurate to describe him as more like a vacuum. He doesn't wait for knowledge and experiences to drop onto him like water onto a sponge -- he seeks them out and sucks them in forcefully like a vacuum cleaner. Everywhere new that we go he must explore every inch of it, stare at all the people, and touch everything. He absolutely loves experiencing new things and I love watching him do so. 

We went to a birthday party for the daughter of some friends of ours on Saturday. They did a carnival theme for the party and everything was sooo cute and colorful! They had all kinds of little carnival games and activities and most of the kids brought their bikes and trikes so Wilder was in heaven checking them all out. 

Watching football with 

Dada after the party

On Sunday it was pretty chilly outside but we still wanted to get out of the house so Paul and I walked Wilder to the playground down the street and let him run around. He had fun playing and going down the slide but what he really wanted to do was inspect a couple of bikes some kids had left over to the side of the playground. It's impossible to tell him that people don't always want you touching their stuff so when we see bikes, motorcycles, and other wheeled vehicles and Wilder is loose it's always a problem. He absolutely insists on going over and touching them. Not sure what to do about this issue. I know he's not going to hurt the bikes, etc., he just wants to check them out, but like I said not everyone is OK with that and I want to teach him to respect other people's property. That day, as usual, every chance he got he would start making his way over toward the bikes and we would have to steer him away or distract him with something else. But finally the kids finally rode off and Wilder moved on to exploring other areas of the playground. It's so fun to watch him waddling around :)

Yesterday we went with Rachel and Lexi to a signing storytime at the Mission Valley Library. Even though I don't do much signing with Wilder, he still enjoyed the stories. The lady reading them was so animated and he was fascinated by all of her hand motions. He sat in my lap the entire storytime, which never happens. He did get down and move closer when she brought out the bubbles though. I mean, who doesn't love being in the middle of a bubble shower?

This afternoon after lunch I walked Wilder down to the North Park Library. We hadn't been before and it isn't nearly as nice as some of the other ones. But, who cares? It had books and strangers to stare at and that's all that matters to Wilder. :) Plus, he got to bring some books home and he thought that was totally awesome. He carried the car book he picked out all the way home and didn't even want to let go of it to take a nap. I see a lot more time spent in the library in our future now that he appears to have reigned in his overwhelming desire to pull every single book off the shelves like a madman.