Fun with Ralph

Ralph and I had such fun today!

He had water therapy this morning. Now that he is getting bigger and stronger it is difficult for me to do the exercises with him. He has his own ideas about what to do in the water! He fought me pretty hard while doing the front and back swishes, and front and back kicks. When we got to the sitting dives and jumping in, he decided to get with the program.

During our free time I had him practice running in the water on the underwater bench. The water is about chest high on him when he stands on the bench. He LOVED it! We spent some time just playing with the waterfall and the little water spouts around the pool. He was so relaxed in the water. It felt great to be in the pool with him.

I started smooching on his soft neck. He stuck out his tongue and gave me the biggest, wettest kisses ever. Ever. My lovey boy!

I took him to a little neighborhood park in the afternoon. We had just dropped a couple of brothers at the dentist and had an hour to kill. This park had baby swings that he loved. Also a really great slide. The slide was brand new but actually made of metal. (hard to find a metal slide these days) Ralph was able to go down this rather high slide without me catching him. It was made in such a way that he was able to just plop on his butt without flying forward or falling on his knees. It's great when he can be more independent.

I gave Ralph a longer metaphorical leash today. I want to give him more room to explore. I also want to give him the opportunity to recognize on his own that it is time to come back to mommy. He did pretty good and actually stopped one time when I asked him to stop walking away from me! I don't want him to feel that I am forever chasing him down.

After swimming and playing at the park a nice nap was in order. Too bad I didn't get one myself!