No More Prissy Princess?

This morning was reasonably warm (and by that I mean the temp was higher than 40 at 11:00), so we decided to take advantage of it. We went outside to play....well, Alison played, mommy worked. Now that all the snow has melted the depressing sight of all the leaves that fell after we raked (and raked and raked and raked) the yard last fall has been staring me in the face, so I decided to do something about it.

Last summer and fall, Alison was quite the prissy princess. She would not touch grass. Not for anything. It really worked out to our advantage in a lot of ways, though. When it came time to rake up all the leaves, I could spread out a blanket in the yard, put a few toys on it and even though she was mobile by that time, she wouldn't get off the blanket. To do so would mean she would have to touch the grass, and we couldn't have that. (She didn't much like sitting in a pile of leaves either.) Of course, there were disadvantages as well. If we didn't have a blanket to sit her on, we couldn't put her down in the grass.

So this morning we went outside and I let her loose in the front yard. She took off and had a ball, until she fell. She had to touch the grass. She picked her hands up as soon as she got her knees under her. Not to worry, though. She was back on her feet in no time, without touching the grass since she just stands up rather than pushing herself up. She toddled around holding her hands up by her shoulders (as far away from the grass as she could get them, I guess) until she fell again. This scene repeated several more times. Then she noticed the leaves. She picked one up for a second and then put it down (yucky!). Then she noticed the sticks. Apparently those are ok. She picked one up and walked around with it for a good five minutes. Falling down on the grass was still icky, but it wasn't quite so bad with a stick in her hand. She much preferred being on the driveway, though.

It wasn't too much longer before she discovered there was a flowerbed on the other side of the sidewalk. Touching the grass is icky, but digging around in the mulch isn't. Go figure! At least I caught the mulch before it went into her mouth.

At any rate, I really hope this is the beginning of the end of the prissy princess routine. If not, we're in for a long spring/summer/fall of skinned knees and hands (and maybe even chins, cheeks and foreheads) because she'll be spending her time running up and falling down on the driveway (or the patio, when we're out back).