Babies Bug and Bento: Lots of outside time lately

Between his ages of 0 and 3 months, I manically battled all germs and dirt and dangerous stuff within a 12 foot radius of this tiny baby. Between 3 and 6 months I relaxed a little, but still instituted a no-shoes house policy, and brought clean blankets everywhere I went upon which to lay his sweet, perfectly unsullied head. Between 6 and 9 months, he became mobile, and I slowly began to lose track of the exact types and quantity of disgusting filth he got on his hands and put in his mouth. I at least tried to keep him from licking the dog toys, and I swept the house every morning. And even as I became increasingly laid-back between 9 and 12 months, I had this lingering, compulsive sense that I couldn't let him mess around outside because I didn't want him to get hurt or super dirty. We have always had a fair amount of outside time in the last year, but I still mostly held him, or only let him down when we were in a semi-sterile looking area, like a Google lawn, or a park made for kids his age with no sand. Something really changed when he turned 1 though. Suddenly all the reasons I had in my head not to let him explore started sounding really creepy and overprotective.

So yes Moss, the grass in our backyard is scratchy and pokey, but you're wearing pants. And yes the dogs poop back there, but I pick it up every day. And yes, there are spiders that live in the leaves, but they're mostly daddy longlegs and other nice garden-y things. And yes we have thorny blackberry bushes, but you'll learn not to grab them. And yes, by the end of each day you have black feet, grass seeds in your shirt, and sand in your diaper, but as it turns out, that's kind of the way you measure how good the day was. My hangups don't have to be yours.