Time to Play

Diego is now fifteen months old, and life is changing quickly.  He plays now.  I mean, he REALLY plays!  He demands time outside when we get home each afternoon, and he and I spend about 30 minutes to an hour finding things to do in the backyard.  I have always felt dismayed about our backyard.  Grass refuses to grow for longer than one season, and the overgrown trees drop a layer of leaves that quickly becomes unmanageable if I miss a day of raking.  But now, suddenly, I am finding myself keeping up with the raking, because my little boy drags me out to “play”  (do yard work) every day.  As I pull weeds, he pulls grass and leaves; as I rake, he pushes an old broken rake around; as I examine the growing grass and plants, he climbs up on anything and everything.  He is learning to throw rocks.  I…