Discovering

Maybe it's a two year old thing, but recently my boy has been soaking up the world around him like it's the coolest thing he's seen since his first episode of Thomas the Tank Engine.

His appetite for discovery seems to have grown exponentially. Everything is interesting, and all the little things he never took notice of before are suddenly fascinating and mind blowing.

 
Last weekend it was crabs.  He spent the afternoon with his dad, grandpa and Nana turning over rocks and watching with wide eyes as tiny little crabs scurried for cover. He peered into other childrens buckets that were filled with salty ocean water and dozens of crabs they collected (and later let go), pointing and repeating over and over "teeny tiny crabs".

How many can you see?

This weekend Jake discovered ants.  My husband was out doing a bit of cleaning in our "garden", where he showed our boy the whole new world of ants, worms and wood bugs. For the rest of the weekend, wherever we walked Jake would keep his eyes to the ground looking for ants. When he spotted one he'd crouch down and follow it. "Ants!" he'd call out, "Ants, going home now" (this is where we told him they were going when we wanted him to move along - "alright Jake, let the ant go home and have lunch now.")

During one such occasion he stood up, took a step and his little foot landed dangerously close to the ant we'd been stalking.  The ant froze with the fear of the gigantic kids size 7 runner landing within millimeters of its little head, but for a second we were all scared that Jake had accidentally stood on it. A dread ran through me in that moment, knowing I was going to have to find a creative way to explain why the ant who was moments ago scurrying around was now so motionless, and by the look on my boy's face I knew there would be a lot of explaining to do. His eyes were huge and terrified "Oh no mami! fix it! fix it!" he cried.  He crouched down to look at the little ant, and just then the ant gathered its wits and relieved us all by picking up its legs and getting the heck out of dodge. Needless to say we were all relieve.  The ant was okay.

But the incident showed me a very special side of my boy. The caring and sensitive side of him that isn't always visible against his active, high energy, two year old side. He almost stepped on an ant, and that mattered to him. A lot. He cared that it might have been broken, and wanted it to be fixed. His instinct wasn't to keep walking but to crouch down and make sure that that little ant was going to be okay.

It made my heart glad.

And it taught me that in this big world, where my boy is still discovering so much, that I am discovering too, the many unique sides of my son. 

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Speaking of discovery, this weekend we Boyds discovered this little gem near Confederation Park in Burnaby.  

If you ever find yourself lacking for something interesting to do on a weekend a visit here will surely remedy the boredom.   If you're a train lover, or happen to know one you can bring a long, even better! It's affordable and fun, but it was the engineers that added the special touch to the experience.

We'll certainly be going back next weekend.  And probably every weekend after that through Thanksgiving if Jake has any say.