Week of March 18 - Exploring (Part 2)

When Emily is not at the local park and able to explore there, the next best thing is the back yard. With the warm weather continuing over the last week, Emily very much wanted to get out and explore the yard more on her own. She made this pretty clear when she quickly surmised that the sliding screen door was something that was hers to operate anytime she liked. [so I needed to make a quick repair on the door lock so that she cannot head outside unattended. Next I am going to have to install a screen guard as well since she quickly took the approach of pushing on the screen when the door would not open and it won't be long before she pops the seals on the screen edges I'm afraid]

So what does Emily like to do out in the back yard? Beyond the normal curiosity of exploring everything in sight, Emily likes to help Mommy with the gardening by stomping on any little weed sprout she finds. She quickly learned that Mommy thinks weeds are bad and so Emily will walk over and take one of her feet and stomp on any weed sprout that she spots. Most often she will say "weed!" as she does this. It's totally cute to watch. She's pretty good at this too in that she seems to have quickly learned to distinguish weeds from plants and flowers. Sniffing flowers is something that Emily also enjoys (she learned this from when there are roses or other flowers in the house for Mommy). So if she sees a blossom of any kind she will point, say "flowa!" and run over and sniff the flower. We are pretty sure that plucking flowers is just around the corner in the exploring experience, so Mommy has new challenges ahead to deal with as spring progress. :)

Now for some photos of the real exploring.......starting with the first tenuous steps of the day :)

Checking on Dada first though, because he had that silly camera stuck to his face again..
OK, well I guess we can keep an eye on Dada, but for now it's time to check out one of the garden lamps... On the move now, coming back from the first test of the far end of the yard....
And now, waaaaay over on the other end of the back yard, checking out the citrus trees, and there is the silly man still following me around with a camera stuck to his face.....

On the way back now, but no journey is complete unless I explore everything...including this nifty looking lantern.....

And, last but not least, back around to the grass again and checking out the statue of two little kids smooching.....

And, as you can see in the two photos below, different day, same little adventures :)

It will be interesting to see how long before Emily gets tired of the yard and wants to extend her adventuring more. With all this good weather, if it continues, then Dada has to pull the swing out of winter storage and hang it back up in the patio pretty soon. And with summer coming in a few months, it is very likely we will be adding a wading pool, and some outdoor toys as well to add to Emily's range of adventures in her very own back yard.

In closing this week, a very cute photo of Mommy giving Emily some snuggles and kisses. Emily of course is a bit more interested in Mommy's calculator at the moment, but the snuggles and kisses are always enjoyed by our very affectionate daughter who also gives snuggles, kisses, and hugs to us as well.