All Who Wander Are Not Lost

It's been a jam packed month and a half and the pace of life isn't slowing down anytime soon. I think you thrive on this.

We've noticed, over the past few months that you have no qualms at all about leaving our side and wandering away. Part of me likes this fierce streak of independence, the other part of me worries about your physical safety. The other night we were strolling the grounds of the Botanical Gardens with some friends and one of them commented on how comfortable you were being far, far away from us. Indeed, you had run down the walkway and behind a grove of trees without a single backwards glance. He made the observation that perhaps this was because we had spent so much time with you as an infant. Now, I don't know how much this guy knows about attachment theory parenting but I admit my heart swelled with pride. The whole idea of attachment parenting is that you spend a lot of time in very close contact (sleep sharing, baby wearing, holding infants constantly) so that they develop a very secure attachment at the base which allows them to explore with confidence later in life. You seem to be comfortable wandering about 16 years too early for my taste.

For the majority of the time I was writing this blog post you were sitting by my side working hard on getting the camera back in the camera case. A few seconds ago, you reached over and gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, "bye, bye, see you later." You hopped off the couch with the camera case hung over your shoulder and turned around to say, "dinner." Which I assumes means we should expect to see you back for dinner. I wonder where your little wandering heart will take you today?

The pictures are from a recent trip to Alabama to visit Dot and Charles (Poppa's first cousin once-removed but we prefer to just call them kinfolk). They are pretty special folks to us and we had a good night and morning visiting at their house and wandering their property. You are amazed that Charles never wears shoes. The will be more blog posts in the next day or two detailing our recent trip to New England. Right now, we have some exploring to do. Perhaps at the new Piedmont Park swimming pool?