Yep, still flying that plane!
This sight has become very familiar. Linus has a series of Thomas books that are really for a much older kid. But they’ve become his favorite, and I have to read them over, and over. He doesn’t have the attention span for the actual words, so I do an abbreviated version. “Rosie is an engine who pulls cars past the windmill. Rosie and Emily are friends. Uh oh! Rosie doesn’t know the cart came uncoupled!” etc. Over and over. I’ve been trying to keep my made-up story straight, but I’m not sure whether he notices. One thing that’s interesting lately is he’s aware of words and numbers. He points to them asking me to read them. I’m not sure what he makes of them, but I’m definitely following his lead.
This odd scene is how Linus plays with one of his dump trucks. He only likes to play with it with the wagon part down.
Yen planned a really nice day for us Saturday. We started off at the Ipswich River Audubon Sanctuary. I’m so happy that there’s finally a little autumn chill in the air! Linus looks dashing in his conductor hat. We bought it thinking he’d look cute wearing it while watching trains, but now we’ve found it useful in all kinds of places.
Linus was so happy to be outside. He’s a little nature baby. I should really stop calling him a baby, I suppose.
Just like Mommy, Linus loved the boardwalks best. We had an awful time keeping him on them, though. He wants to jump right into the water with the ducks.
We took him to this particular sanctuary in part because the birds are so tame they’ll sit in your hand – if it’s full of birdseed.
Success!
After posing for the nice photo, he tried once again to jump in.
I think there was a bird calling down to them from this tree. When Linus saw us feeding the birds, he said, “Kaw kaw!” He learned that from his little Moby-Dick book (the gulls say it, and therefore so does every bird).
I like the quizzical look on Linus’s face.
Linus is not afraid to just plow ahead of us down the trail or across bridges. It makes me awfully nervous, but I try to hang back and let him explore.
Playing with a spider web.
On the way back to the car, we had to climb about thirty steps. Linus did a great job! He tackled about half of them by climbing up on his knees, just as he does at home. Only here he kept finding rocks that were out of place (on the step instead of back behind it). Before he took each step, he had to put the rock back in the right position.
Such a typical little boy pose.
Linus discovered a dandelion…
Oops.
And then he presented it to me!
We got back in the car after that and headed to Portsmouth. We had a very nice lunch, then went off to tour the USS Albacore. I was nervous he would flip all of the switches and turn all of the dials, but Yen explained… That’s the whole point!
Here they are getting ready to head inside.
Linus checks out the bunks. They’re about his size, really.
Hanging out in the mess hall.
Then he found his favorite part: the steering wheel. Or something like it, anyway.
Hm… Which button should I push?
All of them!
Getting ready to cross through a hatch.
So all of that was Saturday! The next morning, I wasn’t feeling great. We took the morning easy, and then in the afternoon decided to go for another walk in the woods. Linus tried on my hat as we packed up. I think it suits him.
This adventurous little boy! We got onto the trail, and he just took off, confidently walking along, checking everything out. He collected acorns, and offered them to everyone we met.
He was actually very good about staying on the trail for most of the walk. He saw interesting off-road things a few times and tried to follow, but didn’t really make a fuss when we corrected him.
He was so excited when two horses passed us by. I actually had to hold him back from running to greet them.
“Mommy! An acorn! Lookit!” He’s actually running now instead of just walking.
And again, he tried to jump into the water, no fear at all. Yen had to work pretty hard to hold him back.
Poor Linus is in a little regression of some sort right now. He’s been chewing on his fingers (maybe his teeth hurt?), and he’s getting up in the night and wants to be held. It’s hard transitioning from baby into little boy.
