My Sunny Backyard

I recently got back from a trip where the weather was cold and being inside was the most inviting.  Upon making it back to my hometown I found the sun shining, the blue sky sparkling and temperatures hovering at a great 65 degrees.  What calls when the weather is like that?  The great outdoors!  I grabbed my sons hand and decided to be adventurous and not go to a park but try something new.  Mission Trails was our destination and on the way my son and I laid out the animals that we would look for along the path; lizards, birds and fish.  These all seemed good possibilities except maybe the lizards as the weather was a bit cool for them, but off we went on our hunt along the trail.  Having a goal in mind, that of reaching the point of the trail where it overlooked the dam, I hit the path with a wide stride enjoying the crunch of the gravel beneath my feet.  Not hearing the crunch of gravel behind me I turned around to see if my son was lagging too far, but he was not far behind, he was not on the path at all.  He had seen the next best thing to walking down a gravel path, jumping off the rocks that line the path.  So the jumping began, he was confident enough to make it off the small ones on his own but still needed my hand to help him with the big ones. 
It is slowly getting to be less and less that my little boy reaches for my hands.  As he discovers the world around him he is finding that he does not need a mom to hold his hands as he traverses the play ground (though to be honest my little dare devil never did want my help when it came to the playground I just tried to keep him alive), walks through the mall or goes to his Sunday school class.  As a new mom I dreamed of the times when my baby would be able to feed himself, play on his own and allow me to sit through a whole church service, but now that it is here I wish my baby would come back.
As we continued on our hike the only animals that we noticed were small black caterpillars crawling around everywhere.  It was so fun to see these creatures through my sons eyes as he followed them along the trail saying 'crawling, crawling, crawling'.  I had to step out of my purposeful stride and move at a more meandering pace to allow for enjoyment in viewing the water, climbing on rocks, climbing on rocks through the water and looking for fish in the water.  Unfortunately it is hard to explain to a 2 year old that throwing rocks into the water has a tendency to scare away fish.  Crossing over streams, up stairs  and over more gravel paths we made it to the top of the were a nice bench was waiting for us, so we enjoyed our orange and trail mix.  Once again the only animals that we saw along the path were the little black caterpillars.  On our way back along the path we came to a small hillside that looked too inviting for my little boy to pass up.  Being the mountain climber that he is and aspires to be, up the hill he went.  Making it a good way on his own, with me following closely behind to prevent injury, he got to a point where he could not get much farther on his own.  It was tempting to help him up so that he could reach his goal but it was a bit slippery and not the best terrain to carry a kid up so we turned around.  I admired his spirit of adventure and enjoyed my glimpse of what the future holds.  Exploring nature and learning how to climb mountains as my little guy takes on the world is the bright future.  May the journey of being a mom continue to hold so much joy.