Saturday, March 19, 2011

A golden evening

Friday was an absolutely beautiful day out here in central Jersey -- 75 degrees, perfectly sunny, balmy breezes, just gorgeous.  This being New Jersey, we knew that there was a non-trivial chance that we would get snow and ice the next day... So we went out for a pre-dinner family excursion to bask in the beautiful golden evening!


We decided to head down to the battlefield to go for a walk, and to re-introduce Joshua to the great outdoors.  The last time he played outside, he wasn't really crawling yet... How quickly they change and grow!  So this was Joshua's first experience walking outside!


It's really fascinating viewing the world through his inexperienced eyes.  We set him down on the little paved path that runs along Mercer Road, expecting him to take off running as he always does indoors.  Instead, he stared at us quizzically, peered at the ground, and took very, very halting steps forward.  Every single little variation in the ground posed a puzzle -- is it low enough to step over?  Does it require getting down on hands and knees to crawl over it?  Is that a hole?  Is it shallow enough to walk over it?  Is it small enough to walk around it?  HOLD ON, is that a strip of GRASS running through the asphalt?


It took him a little while to warm up to the idea of walking along the sidewalk.  But our little guy was so brave -- helped in part, I think, by the blocks he clutched in each hand the entire time.  I like to think they provided a degree of normalcy and comfort to him, being talismans of the comfortable world of indoor play...  :)  But after a few minutes, he was running ahead of us gleefully.  And by the time we reached the end of the sidewalk, he did NOT want to turn around to walk back!


What a gloriously beautiful evening!  And what a perfect way to spend time together as a family!

3 comments:

Amanda said...

I love this post!

alauna said...

this is so adorable! i await these first steps outside and these are great photos that capture the moment. i hope i can do the same!

republicans areevil said...

oh my god he is just so precious!!!
if this was facebook I would like! like! like!

enjoy this caus before you know it you'll be arguing with him over when his curfew is