Rock Climber in Training

We spent the morning with my parents and one of my brothers at some cool public gardens a little south of their house, which Nicholas thought was awesome because there were tons of rocks to climb on. By chance I had dressed him today in the shirt I brought back from my rock climbing adventures that says "Rock Climber in Training" and has a picture of a bear in climbing gear. You can't really see the shirt in the pictures because of the clips for Nicholas' monkey leash, but the leash actually functioned a lot like a belay line, so even that is fitting, I think.

Nicholas was interested in touching some of the plants, liked the ponds and fountains (although he was mad that I wouldn't let him go "uppy" into the fountains), enjoyed running around, and thought the butterflies were interesting (too bad he tried to pet them).

But really he was all about anything that presented a challenge and resembled climbing in any way. He walked across stone pathways and stairs really intently, working hard at dealing with the uneven surfaces and varied heights.

From 2010 September

From 2010 September

He enjoyed the children's garden, especially the tree house (and stairs leading up and down) and tree tunnel:

From 2010 September

From 2010 September

But I think his favorite part was this random large rock he decided to climb.

From 2010 September

Uncle Andrew was sitting on the rock and Nicholas wanted up, but got very mad when we passed him up. So Andrew got up and we started on our way. But Nicholas insisted we had to go back to the rock. And then promptly started trying to climb it. He only needed a tiny bit of help getting up, but then got pretty scared at the top and needed to be lifted down. There is a video here, but it is a huge file so I'll only leave it up for a few weeks.

A delightful day all around!