Whee!!

Dashiell has suddenly become much more dexterous and LOVES to climb on anything and everything now! Every chair is a new challenge! The bed must be beaten! The ottoman overcome! Now going to the park is even more fun for D since he wants more than anything to climb up the play structures and slide down every slide, not to mention crawl through any and all tunnels. Of course this comes with a new set of worries for us but we try to keep our anxieties in check (yes, he's taken a few extra headers this past week--nothing serious, all from low heights, and we try to keep in mind that these are "learning experiences"). He had been climbing somewhat previous to this, but never quite as confidently as he is now. Since he all but skipped crawling he's never been as comfortable using his knees as he is going feet first, and those little legs are still fairly short so he just couldn't figure out how to climb the way he wanted to!

I first noticed his new found climbing bravado about a week ago when we were playing in the yard. He has a small slide/fort that's been in the yard all summer long. Up until last week if he wanted to go down the slide he'd ask us for assistance to get up the ladder (in that urgently-pointing toddler way). On Wednesday we were in the back yard and he went right up to the slide, pulled himself up the ladder, and slid down all by himself! Of course I whipped out my handy cell phone video camera and was able to get him to do this over and over again so I could share it with everyone. There are 2 separate videos since the maximum recording time on my crummy cell phone is only 15 seconds--the first is climbing up, the second is sliding down. Enjoy!

Oh, and my friend Elana had asked me yesterday what Dashiell's latest new word was, which I just could not think of for the life of me! But of course as soon as we got off the phone I remembered. So just for you, Elana, Dashiell's newest word is "salsa"! Which he had for lunch yesterday and loved, loved, loved!