Freedom!

With Dean starting to walk, it has brought great freedom to him. He can now walk around outside (thanks to his new shoes, post coming about them soon!), and of course, he can get around the house much quicker then before too.

I also like to leave him to be free in other ways. I allow him to climb on everything he attempts to, and have discovered that he learns extremely quickly when left to his own devices! He has yet to fall down from something, and he seems to know his limits when he is trying something new. Obviously, I am always close by to make sure that he is safe, but I like to help him to make progress, rather than to just remove him from the situation. My motto is that you can't learn, if you can't try!

The stairs are a huge fascination to my little boy. Im guessing that about 100 times a day, I have to chase after my escape-artist son to take him away from the stairs. All he wants to do is climb up them, which he is brilliant at doing, but I can't risk trusting him to climb them all alone, so we chase and we chase and we chase! Eventually I will give in, and we will go up the stairs and explore wherever Dean chooses to go.

I long for the day when I can send Dean out to the back garden, with a pair of wellies (or bare feet in the summer time!), and a bucket and spade, and see what mischief he occupies himself with! I have visions of worms, slugs and god knows what else being shoved in front of my eyes by mucky little hands on a regular basis. I can't wait to see him venturing out into the big world, running and playing on the beach, in a forest, in a field...

I hope my boy is as enchanted by the outdoors as I was as a child, and still am. I love seeing children playing outside, there really is no better fuel for a child then fresh air and good food. My favourite memories of my own childhood all took place during various outdoor excursions. We spent a lot of time outside, and we had so much freedom while playing outside by ourselves. I hope Dean is lucky enough to experience the same kind of freedom that we did.

I hope that he is always free, free to be whoever he may be, and free to make whatever choices feel right to him. This is the first taste of freedom that I can give him, his first taste of independence, and I relish watching him grab the opportunity to do his own thing, at his own pace.

How lucky we are to experience this.

Long may all of our freedom last!