It’s very interesting to see how Mads interacts with other children. He seems much more curious about them in general than adults, which I suppose makes sense. Of course he interacts every day with two 2 year old twins at daycare, but we never get to see that. He still kind of does his own thing, but if another child starts playing with something interesting he’ll run over and check it out.

One of the funniest moments of the weekend was when Maddox became absolutely enthralled by these huge tubs of ice filled with soda at a get-together we had on Saturday. He spent literally thirty minutes moving pieces of ice, one by one, from one bucket to another. Then he spent the next thirty minutes stirring them with a stick. By the end of it, three other children were all stirring the ice with sticks. Who knew a one year old could be such a little leader.

Earlier in the day we also discovered the wonderful Cashman Park, which is right on the water in Newburyport. It has three sections for each age group, has lots of shade for when it’s sunny, and is surrounded by huge fields. It’s also really nice to have Maddox be skilled enough at moving around that we can plop him down and off he goes. We still have to be very careful around steps though as about 15% of the time he isn’t aware of them, and another 15% of the time he figures he’ll just try walking right down them and see what happens.

It certainly is a learning experience though, as a parent, figuring out the dynamics of interacting with other parents and their children on the playground. Again, Mads mostly found his own thing to do (he’s really into moving woodchips around), but he did have one cute moment where another girl his age came up and hugged him. I don’t think he noticed though, he seemed very focused on the woodchips at the moment.

Now one thing I’ve found about breakfast places is that they tend to be small, cramped, and quiet. Not the ideal environment for a toddler who likes to yell and bang spoons against the table. The place we found fit this mold, but luckily had an open outdoor table. And that outdoor table had all these little holes in it as part of the design, which Maddox, straw in hand, found absolutely fascinating. Dropping a straw through those holes kept him entertained for about thirty minutes straight.

After breakfast we got back in the car and drove to Rye Beach. We found parking about a quarter mile away, which in the past was nothing but now with a baby and his accruements meant a decent trek. We finally arrived, put Mads down on the sand … and he started wailing. We’d actually tried this one before briefly, and he had the same response. So things weren’t looking good.

I figured we had just lugged all this stuff and eventually Maddox had to get tired of crying. Leanne was a bit more proactive and sat down with him and showed him how much fun sand could be. After another minute or two, he realized she was right and for the next hour he had a blast. I think the best thing about this for him was the fact that he could just walk non-stop without us having to pick him up to avoid all the dangers he might normally run into (darn Nature and her lack of babyproofing!).

One of the other things he enjoyed was us digging him a hole, which he would sit in, cross his legs, and then let out a contented sigh.

He didn’t really love the water though, perhaps partially due to the fact that it was probably about 35 degrees cooler than the air. So later on when we were home, we setup the water table his grandparents bought him for his birthday, and he had a great time splashing with that.

It also was a good test to see how he’d fare on a longer road trip, and he did wonderfully! We left around 9:30 in the morning, just at his nap time, and so he slept for the first hour and a half.

We stopped at a Mexican place for lunch. We actually ordered a whole plate of food for him, some rice and beans, before realizing that he’s not exactly at the age yet where he can down a whole plate of food like that. He loved the rice and beans though. Not a big surprise of course, as there’s still very little he actually won’t eat (besides, for some reason, blueberry waffles. Even though he likes blueberries and waffles. Who knows!). Mads was very entertained by the oversized cartoon pinatas hanging from the ceiling.

After a brief campus driving tour we ended up at a big patch of grass near the center of campus, where our goal was to wear Mads out before the ride back. He’s still immensely entertained just by walking around in circles outside. Standard procedure is for him to pick up a stick and wave it around while parading up and down the grass.

On the drive back Mads started to show a bit of frustration, so for the first time we tried out our secret weapon: the in-car DVD player. And it actually worked! At least for about 45 minutes. He occasionally lost interest, but we heard him crack up every time there was some slapstick comedy. Maddox is a big fan of physical violence, you see.

The biggest problem was that he’s not really at the age where he can use headphones, so Leanne and I got to enjoy the audio-only version of “A Bug’s Life.”

That was actually the first movie we’ve specifically put on for him, as we’re trying to avoid any unnecessary television. It was nice to see that he was entertained, but not enraptured by it.

Plus in the past few days he’s learned to stand up without the assistance of a wall, chair, cat, etc so he has pretty much complete freedom. Which makes public excursions … interesting. He’s not at the age yet where he understands the concept of holding hands and staying “in bounds.” This, coupled with the fact that he’s still not 100% sure on his feet and might go careening into a pole or curb at any moment, make outings where he goes walking a bit of a challenge. To top it off, if you do put him down, don’t plan on picking him up anytime again soon, as he tends to go ballistic when you interrupt his walking.

He does handle falls pretty well too, usually just shaking them off unless he’s tired or grump. We haven’t had a fall that’s resulted in a bruise or scrape yet, but I’m sure that’s not too far off!

For father’s day, Leanne got me a shirt that says, appropriately, “Happy Dad”. Maddox got a shirt as well, which says “Happy Baby”. So we make a good pair. We went out to the Newburyport Farmer’s Market, where three people actually came up to me and told me they loved the shirt. Afterwards, we walked into downtown Newburyport and to Waterfront Park, where Maddox had his first real chance to walk around in a big area outside. He seemed overwhelmed, but in a good way, as he was just non-stop walking, walking, walking. Most surprisingly, he didn’t fall once. It’s really amazing how quickly he has gotten comfortable on his feet.

By the way, we did get a few laughs pushing Mads around Bar Harbor in that outfit.

We’ve been back at home since then, with Leanne adjusting to her first week back at work and Mads at daycare. The situation has worked out wonderfully, and we were very lucky to find the daycare arrangements that we did. This is Leanne’s first weekend with him as well, and I don’t think he’s been put down for more than thirty minutes!

He’s really into testing out his legs recently, so I thought I’d give them a good work out to some music this morning.