Jonah playing in the shade

This week is my only real break between school semesters, so Jonah stayed home Tuesday to help me in the garden. We haven’t hung out much since late last fall. School and work almost overwhelmed me this winter. So Tuesday was wonderful.

Not that we got any gardening done. But the spring weather was perfect. Jonah lurched all over our acre of land, collecting sticks and babbling. I did my best to keep him away from the road and out of the fire ant hills. I followed him around all day, sprinkling Amdro judiciously and talking to him about the things we saw.

a happy lunch

Sometimes I forget how nice it is to have a small piece of land miles outside of town. But I think it’s part of why Jonah is such a happy boy. He loves being outside, and we live in the country, so it works out well.

A word about photographing Jonah: he almost never stops moving, so any photos I post will tend to have blurry bits. I don’t mind. I would never ask him to be still or to pose for a photo. Posed photos are usually so awkward, what with fake smiles and insincere eyes. I love how Jonah utterly lacks self-consciousness. With time, perhaps, he’ll become more self-reflexive and less spontaneous, but I hope not too much. And I certainly don’t want to be the reason it happens to him. Joy bubbles out of him all day, every day. It would break my heart to think that I had helped tamp that down.