Luca Fears Nothing!

Having been an unmarried, pregnant teenager many years ago, I am drawn to girls who are in the same position I was in back then. There is a program here in Phoenix for pregnant teens that offers them a way to stay in school and after they have their children has a daycare on site for their use. It teaches them parenting skills and offers them a great support system, as many of the girls don't get support from any other source. A focus of the program is encouraging the girls to continue getting their education beyond high school. My current role is speaking to the elective class the girls take and eventually, I may mentor one girl a semester.

Today I dropped some baby items off at the school and called my friend Kelly because she lives just one exit over from the school. We decided to take the kids to the park for a while, a sort of impromptu play date. I love the ability to be spontaneous!  So, here we are at the park and off Carsten and Luca go playing in the dirt and on the slides. Remember, Luca is 22 months old. My daring son climbs up the stairs, without any coaching from me, and decides to try out the slide. I thought nothing of it, really, because when we go to the park in our neighborhood, he does fine on the slides. Well, judging from his landing, these slides were a bit more steep than the ones he is used to. He slid down, right off of the slide and did a face plant into the sand, got up, looked up at me with his big eyes while using his tongue to try to get the sand out of his mouth and headed back to the stairs for another go! If you look closely at the picture you will see the sand all over his face. He had a blast!  I love his sense of adventure, but at the same time, it scares me!

I love his spirited personality. He keeps me young at heart...you have to be to keep up with him!