Ian's Day in the Sun

Today was a beautiful sunny day in Seattle, and almost reached 60 degrees GASP! My parents will be laughing as they bask in the Arizona sun. While we actually get beautiful summers, days like this are few and far between this time of year...and there's nothing more gorgeous than our mountain fringed neighboorhood on a clear day in the winter.

Today was also a "teacher inservice" day for Ian's daycare and was closed, so Shawn bit the bullet and used some of his much bragged about sick time cache to stay home since I sacrificed almost two full days last week while Ian was down and out. Poor Shawn...he had to sleep in on a Monday. Must be rough.

When I arrived home from work, I witnessed something that we've yet to see in our 3 months home... Ian ENJOYING the backyard. This might seem like a ho-hum milestone for some, but for us, it's kind of a big deal. Ian's only two trips outside (that weren't soley for the purpose of getting to the car as fast as possible) were to put him in the snow and go crazy snapping pictures while he cried. Not really a positive experience.

Considering that his orphanage was completely indoors, his first real trip outside after being found at 3 months was to get on a train at 19 months and travel from Wenzhou to Hangzhou to meet us...where we promptly stuck him in a baby carrier and his feet never touched the concrete while in China.

So back to today. He was outside walking with Shawn on our patio, but was not thrilled about the rocks. Our entire backyard consists of pavers, flagstone, and river rock. Only a small patch of grass for Polli's "business". As long as he didn't have to step on a crack or seam in the flagstone...or over an area of river rock pebbles....he was enjoying himself. He and I left shortly after my arrival and headed down the sidewalk to a toddler park that is literally across the street from our house. It was packed and I was anxious for him to experience the great outdoors as every kid should.

He grew less and less reluctant the longer we were out and eventually forgot his fear of seams in the sidewalks. We played on the big toy for a whopping 40 minutes and walked from the park and around our block twice. He walked almost the entire time without wanting to hold my hand, which is equally as big a deal. We met up with Shawn as we rounded the block the second time and he escorted Ian back home where he gladly drained a sippy cup of water and pointed at his highchair, indicating he was famished from his exciting afternoon.

It might not be a big deal for most kids, but we were pretty proud of Ian. Only a few days ago, he was too sick to leave the house and today he overcame a big fear of the outdoors and had a great time.

Below are a few great pics of the afternoon.

Ian hanging out on the front steps. He'd never even gone in or out the front door before today!

Playing on the Big Toy at our neighborhood park.

You can't really tell, but he couldn't get enough of the slide.

The bark surface of the play area was freaky at first, but he got over it quickly.

Strolling through the neighborhood. He did almost 2 full laps around our block, probably close to a quarter mile!

Walking with dad...on the home stretch and still going strong.

He wasn't sure about our yard... standing on flagstone with river rock nearby...and the jury's still out about the bamboo.