Monday, 6 May 2013

Outdoors Alby



Mark renamed Alby within just a few days of coming home.

Whereas the early days of his life saw Alby referred to as “Alber’ the Bear”, toddling Trouble Monkey is now known as “Outdoors Alby”.
 
You just can’t keep the Little Man inside.  Ever since he mastered walking down the back step we keep losing him – regardless of how clothed or otherwise he is, he spends his days walking up and down and up and down and up and down the garden.  Shoes on, shoes off, nappy on, nappy off he does not care.  There’s stones to be thrown, soil to be poked, petals to be ripped, grassed to be bashed and, often, a bulldog to antagonise. 

This afternoon Outdoors Alby offered a lovely bit of comedy as he walked out of the back door completely naked, wandered to the end of the path, peed and then gave a nice loud “uh oh” whilst pointing at the wet patch on the path.  What a lad!

I am a bit of a city girl at heart and there is a part of me which mourns living so far from London, however in recent days I’ve appreciated my countryside lifestyle like nothing before.  Last weekend Mark and Alby spent three hours in the garden together.  Three hours solid. He pottered about, helped with a bit of gardening and then played with a piece of string for an hour straight.  Whilst Alby is very good at being left to play by himself, you’d never get that level of concentration and amusement in the house.  What’s more, you’d never catch me sitting in a park for three hours solid.  After half an hour I’d be searching for something to do or pushing on home to crack on with some chores.  Here, I can busy about in the kitchen and keep an eye on my Little Man – it’s the best of both worlds.

I love seeing him outside.  I’m not naïve – I appreciate that there is no way now of ensuring I don’t end up with a stroppy teenager addicted to computer games, but the future will be is out of my hands.  For now, there is something lovely and wholesome about it and I’m just enjoying it and encouraging it for as long as I can.

No comments:

Post a Comment