Adventures Outside

In the spirit of celebrating the small things, we had an adventure outside with Nolan yesterday.  Not so much of an adventure as we went outside.  Mom was inside trying to figure out our central vac and I thought that it would be not big deal to monitor Nolan outside by myself.  WRONG  Within a few seconds e had a hand full of dirt in his mouth and he was trying to spit it out.  I thought we would ply with the soccer ball, but no, he wanted to play with Annie.
Annie and Nolan are quickly becoming best friends.  She had a tennis ball in her mouth, a dirty slobbery one that she had drooled all over earlier in the day.  I found a dry one to "minimize" the amount of yucky germs that were being shared.  Nolan plopped down in the grass and had fun ripping up blades of grass and throwing them over his shoulder covering his little back with bunches of green.  He has figured out how to sort of chuck things in front of him.  I wouldn't quite call it a throw yet, he doesn't have the sense of  hold and release.  It's an open palm with a ball balanced on it that when shot forward might send the ball in some direction.
We walked and he threw the ball and he picked up speed...right toward the edge of the lawn and the steep ten foot drop toward the road.  I had to move faster than I wanted to try and stop him from ran/walking right off the edge.  I called to Mom to come and help me since I am still on very light duty from my back surgery.  luckily she was done so she came out and helped corral the little one.  We wend down to the front yard to discover the front yard and the pile of rocks in the french drain by the little pond he looked at them funny for a few seconds then they wend straight into the mouth.  Nolan threw a few while I snapped some quick photos and just as I was finished a ton of ants came rushing out of the rocks and onto Nolan's leg.  Mom picked him up as fast as she could and we batted them off of him.  Enough adventures for one day.  Dirt, Grass, Rocks, and Ants.  Sounds like a great adventure for a little boy discovering the outdoors.