Lawn Chair Dreams

When we moved into our house almost five years ago, I began to notice that the moms in our cul-de-sac seemed to have a fall ritual: When the weather got (relatively) cooler, they'd bring out their lawn chairs and hang out in their driveways watching their kids play outside. I remember watching them and looking forward to the day when I'd have my own kiddos playing in the yard and my own lawn chair from which to watch them.

This fall, I have my kiddos...and they love to play outside. They'd stay out there all day, every day if they could. And my mom keeps asking me when I'm going to get myself a chair to sit in while I watch them play. But here's the thing: I have zero need for a chair. If it was just Charlie and me, yes, I would sit in a chair while she kept herself amused stacking up rocks, or pushing her stroller around the driveway, or examining single blades of grass. Charlie is quite a low-maintenance outdoor girl:

Exploring the flower bed.

"Helping" Mommy garden by methodically placing mulch onto the driveway.

However, there will be no lawn-chair lounging in my immediate future. And that's because I have to keep tabs on this little guy...

He's drinking from the water table!

He's trying to climb into Uncle Dot's truck!

He's getting into Mommy's car! (He can climb from the back seat into the driver's seat.)

He's climbing into the wagon!

He's sitting in the water table! (He has done this when the table has been empty and full.)

He's deciding it's time for a walk in BOB! (Yes, he climbed up there on his own.)

(And OH MY GOSH he looks HUGE in this picture and it's kind of freaking me out.)

 He's the king of the world!!!

He also eats worms, brings me dead bugs, runs repeatedly into the street (and gets put repeatedly in time-out), dumps buckets of water (that poor Charlie is trying to play with) all over his clothes, and pulls flowers from the flowerbed. In short, he behaves like a little boy! And keeping up with him leaves pretty much no time for sitting down. But that's okay...there's plenty of time for lawn-chair lounging, and my little boy won't be little for long.