Nature

This is how the other children see Sam during playdates. The back of him - off and running.  Always on the move.

I couldn't blame him yesterday.  We met the other moms and babies at a really pretty park in McKinney.  There was lots of shade and open space for Sam to run.  And boy did he run.

The purpose of the playdate was for all of us moms in this particular group (a club for mommy photographers or "momtogs" as we're sometimes called) to get together and practice taking pictures of the kids outdoors, with bubbles and pinwheels as props.

This is the only picture I got of Sam officially participating in our photography shoot.  He can't say no to bubbles!  But for the most part, Sam had other plans.  He wanted to get down and dirty with nature.

And boy did he get dirty!  He collected seed pods ("baw-uls") and threw them in the lake, one by one, and watched the water ripple.  He found some leaves, a couple of sticks, and pounded his hand on a park bench, touching a spot that I thought was dirt, but later decided was something else, judging by the number of geese lurking around...

And by the time we were ready to go home, this is what his playmates saw, the ones he had ignored for over an hour - a dirty, hot and sweaty boy who'd had a great day just hangin' out with nature!