balcony play

So when I put up the little video where I had a conversation with EJ on the last blog we were sitting on the balcony of our flat. It was a gorgeous morning, and I know that when it warms up we will not be able to play on the balcony in the mornings anymore because we will just want to be in the shade. So we are enjoying it while it lasts.

That particular morning I decided to continue to push myself and do something a bit messy. NOt my cup of tea as far as parenting, my anxiety just sky rockets and then I turn into dictator and it ends up not being fun. So I am stretching myself and I told myself I would be ok with the outcome. I did set out guidelines for EJ to follow....try to keep it in the containers as best as possible and no throwing it. THat was it, then I had to just look the other way when it started getting around on the floor. It was the balcony which made that a little easier but this was a good experiment for both of us. Ej doesnt like to sit for any amount of time and I swear that little motor body of his revs more rpms each day. He is nonstop in motion....I really hope the saying of boys being easier when they get older is true because he completely wears me out all the time!

I even tried to let him play without me right at his side for a bit, to try to get him to play on his own without me coming up with the imaginative play. We were playing with "cloud dough" by the way. Just 8 cups flour and 1 cup baby oil and its awesome! I could have sat and played with it forever, it crumbles and yet you can mold it. The missionaries came over that night and played with it some more too!

I sat Ej right in front of the glass fencing we have so that he could look at the veiw and birds and things. It was a great morning. I have recently come across a blog called 'Making Boys Men' at www.makingboysmen.blogspot.com.co.uk and seriously she is really inspiring to me. I love to get Ej outside and doing things and with living in a flat its not always easy because I have chores and things I need to get done. And while her family lives in a home with a yard it made me realize I can do so much inside stuff outside with him on the balcony on those days I can't get him out to the playground or wherever and she has loads of ideas. Great for girls or boys, she just happens to have boys and great ideas. So we have been working on spending time outdoors even more than our usual-which is quite a lot considering we walk to the shops multiple times a week and do an outdoor playgroup,etc.

And I love being out there with him and getting some fresh air and sunshine and listening to the birds. I absolutely love listening to the birds here, even the crazy kookaburras that sound like crazy monkeys in the trees. I never thought I would like listening to different bird calls, but I have fallen in love with it here and will sorely miss it here. I will have to try to find a cd with some of the local birds to take back to the states. The above picture Ej doesnt look enthused but I think I just caught his face wrong as the camera snapped. He loved playing with the dough! I am not sure what we will do when it warms up this spring and turns so quickly into the summer, we will have to change outside time to later and maybe do our water activities first thing. I cant wait to see how Ej does in the water this year after his amazing leaps he made last year. We just got him a wetty(wetsuit) on sale this weekend so that when we go to the ocean or wherever he wont have to take as many breaks to come on the beach and cool off which was so hard to do last year. We basically had to bribe him with food to come in so that he could warm up and head back in. This year will be nice to have the wetsuit for that reason.