We Heart Virginia 2

My parents not only have a lovely house, but a lovely outdoor space and neighborhood. Finley just LOVES being outside these days and as soon as we exited the garage, he spotted some shovels and dirt (mulch). He flipped over an extra plastic planter and used it as a bucket. He soon uncovered a stick and thought that was pretty neat, too. Cheap thrills!

Luckily, Finley enjoys cleaning up as much as he likes making a mess.

Soon the birds were calling and Finley couldn't resist a bird hunt. We crossed several yards and almost caught up to this silly birds. It's amazing to me how far Finley will distance himself from me when we are outside, but if we're inside there's basically a 6 foot maximum!

After bird chasing, we continued on the sidewalk towards the main road in hopes of spotting a truck or two. We were almost to end of the sidewalk when I turned to my mom and said, "Too bad, school's not letting out now, I bet lots of buses would pass by." No sooner had a finished that sentence, when Finley yelled and pointed, "BUS!" and as if by magic, a school bus drove by and stopped to drop off some kids across the street. And then he took off running, downhill towards the big yellow bus. So I took off, too!

I caught up to him and had to convince him that he bus was leaving soon so we couldn't catch up to it, but that darn bus shut off its engine. What are the odds of that?

Luckily, three more buses came by and Finley was happy to watch those go by from a safer distance. Did I mention I love cheap toddler thrills?

Later in our visit, we also took a little trip to Borders to check out some books and other kiddos. As soon as we came into the story reading area, Finley grabbed a book and sat down next to some fellow readers.

For some reason, he selected a chapter book to dive into. It was hysterical to watch him so intently "reading" such a big boy book. He later dabbled in some more age appropriate books and followed some other kids around checking out what they were reading and playing with, but he always came back to that same chapter book (even though I had re-shelved it a couple of times).

Thankfully, this dump truck book FINALLY caught his eye and we chose to buy it and take it home. He held onto it all the way through the parking lots, on the car ride home, and we probably read it four hundred times on the plane ride home. I'd say it was a good purchase, though that chapter book probably had more of a plot...