Playtime

Brooks is doing so much better at playing on his own recently and it's been so nice for me not to have to be right beside him all the time anymore.  The other day I looked over to see what he was up to, and he was trying to go down the car slide on his toy.  Apparently the boy needs a slide to go up and down!  (We're looking into getting one that we could keep inside this winter for him to play with!)

After I got him down (he was kinda stuck with one leg on the toy and one on the floor), he was okay with letting the cars drive down the ramp, but I know he would have rather been the one to do it!

 

Brooks is also learning to play with his cousins and other kids a lot better.  I can't wait till he can play with them even more and get excited when they come over! About once a week I try and get together with my sister and her kids.  Last week we went to grandma's to play in the splash pool.

They had fun, but all Brooks wanted to do was drink the water!

When cousin Winter came over a few weeks ago, Brooks and her played in the sandbox together.  She even showed him how to wash up with the hose! 

 Brooks has always been a kid that is very aware of his personal space.  If someone he doesn't know well tries to enter that space he usually comes unglued and cries.  He has slowly gotten better with other kids, and hopefully the more he is around them, he'll learn that it can be fun to play with kids his own age.  This past weekend we went to Des Moines because Blake had some Ace Paint training.  We found it was a good excuse to get away and see some of our friends we hadn't seen since we moved.  We stayed with Doug and Jennifer (Blake's former boss).  Brooks has always been leery of strangers, but he got along great with them, especially with their daughter Maddie.  He is finally getting used to new people faster.  It didn't hurt that Maddie was usually showing him a laptop or her phone, but nonetheless, he enjoyed playing with her!  

On Friday night we went over to Aaron and Jess Savage's for supper.  They had a little girl 6 days before Brooks was born, so it was fun to get the two of them together.  However, Brooks didn't find it much fun this time.  Carmen is a much more affectionate and hands on baby than Brooks, and that boldness didn't mesh well with Brooks' personal space bubble!  Brooks has finally started calling me Mama (which I love!), and I found it so cute when Carmen started walking towards him that he came right to me saying "mama! mama!"  Someday he'll learn to actually like girls chasing him!  Brooks finally got used to her a little and we were able to snap a few good pics.  But you can see by the progression of the photos, that he became more and more uncomfortable the closer she got!

There were some tears after this last pic, but maybe during the next meeting there won't be so many!  On Saturday we met Lee and Missy at the farmer's market in downtown Des Moines.  Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of that day, but we had a fun time catching up with them and meeting their new daughter, Sierra.  It was a fun weekend, but we definitely were happy to get back home too.  Traveling with a toddler is getting more and more tiring, and I know it will only get worse before it gets better!