mowing

Sometimes we take care of the yard work while Caleb's napping, so we don't have to constantly chase him around to keep him from playing in the street, or covering himself in dirt ("dut"), or soaking himself in the pool of water he makes when he turns the water spigot on full blast, or petting the neighborhood dogs, which are neither friendly nor clean... and so he's not wandering into the long, tick-infested grass nearby. It's just easier when we know he's sound asleep in his bed, in his air-conditioned room.

Other times, we know he's aching to get out of the house and play. Sure he gets hot and sweaty and filthy, and he throws a fit when we have to go back inside, but he has so much fun out there, it's not too hard to give in. Mostly he entertains himself with activities listed above, but he also really likes to help with whatever we're doing. On this day, we discovered a silly use for that myserious bar that most push-behind mowers have in their mid-section. It's so little boys can do a little pushing of their own.



He's so happy to be contributing. It was pretty hard to turn around and maneuver corners with him down there, so it was slow going, but he sure was enjoying himself, and we got several smiles out of it too!




He'd take a break once in a while to investigate a stick or a butterfly or a mushroom ("Please don't eat it! It's orange... that can't be a good sign"), but the he'd come back and do some hard labor. As you can see below, he didn't even stop to eat his mini-bagel - just took the thing along with hi, nibbling on it for a bit then shoving the rest of it in his mouth so he could have both hands free to MOW!

So serious! What a goober.

Of course, mowing isn't his only specialty. He also likes to rake, and occasionally aerate patches of dirt if we're going to plant grass. He even spread some seed with me last time. Now that was a good time.