Now what?

I am desperate for the weather to improve this spring, more than simply because I can't take the frost and the winter jacket anymore. I've already moved to the spring jacket though my car told me it was 36 degrees this morning. I figure that by my sheer will we will move into springlike weather.

This is Luke's first experience with spring. Yes, he was around last year, but he was still having his first experiences with pooping, sitting in water, and the eating of animal hair. Now he's an old pro at all of those. Last time it was warm enough to hang out outside, in say, October, he couldn't walk. He could barely sit up. This is the tremendously cool part of children, the discovery phase.

Luke views the outdoors as a giant pantry that we won't let him play in. He loves to be outside, so every chance I get that it's warm enough, we're heading outside. He likes sitting in his stroller and watching traffic go by just as much as he likes running down the sidewalks, so depending on what I am doing (or, if I am doing anything outside) he's got everything covered.

Last night we opted for the 'walking down the sidewalks'. A few interesting things happened on this walk, which was probably less than a quarter mile. First, Luke noticed water on the sidewalks. We've had some significant storms and our yard is somewhat soaked. Luke was suspicious of this water and wouldn't move forward over it until I showed him that it was okay.

A little while later, we encountered newly installed sidewalk pavers, which are bright white to the rest of the sidewalks dull grey. Luke actually cried about walking over those, so I just lifted him to the next grey paver. He was fine when we ran into more new pavers later, so I guess he got over it.

Shortly thereafter, the sun came out, and Luke's shadow and my shadow stretched out before us in long, stretched, distorted images of ourselves. He stopped, and looked at them, then moved and watched it move, and stopped again. It's incredibly cheesy, but the chance to see the world anew through a child's eyes is indescribable.

Luke didn't really notice the last thing that happened, but I did, and was pretty grossed out, so I thought I'd share. As we walked down the sidewalk, I noticed a large bird sitting in a front yard (on our side of the street, so I had a good view). As we got a little closer, the bird didn't move, and it eyed me suspiciously. I did the same, and realized it was a hawk. We have large trees in our neighborhood, and a forest preserve nearby, so a hawk made some sense. But why was it sitting so still in a front yard?

As we were about twenty feet away, the hawk decided we were too close, so it took off. After it adjusted the dead robin it was sitting on in it's talons for a good hold. It landed in a tree across the street and started ripping apart the dead bird, creating a shower of feathers over the street.

Welcome, spring.