Fall Walk in the Woods

We love to go for walks in the woods. Especially in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. The hardest part of living in the city is that we have to drive so far to be in the woods, though we're slowly finding all the places we can go. We've been to Heritage Park in Farmington Hills quite a bit recently. In addition to a playground and splash zone, the park has hiking trails and is only 20 minutes away. We hiked there the first time when we were looking for some place closer just a few days before Daniel was born.

We had peak fall colors this past week so we HAD to go out for a hike. Here are the highlights:

More firsts

In the last week and a half Daniel has:

- stacked blocks on top of each other
- spun around in circles
- found lots of "toy" cans, bottles, lids and egg cartons in the recycling bin to play with
- screwed lids on and off jars
- colored his first real picture
- really started imitating EVERYthing we do
- gotten 6 new teeth
- started the "I'm not getting what I want," scrunch-up-my-face cry
- gotten pretty good at scooping up (or stabbing!) his food with a spoon and fork

Please don't throw away my socks!

Daniel has taken to carrying things around the house. Last week, we almost had to leave the house with two different shoes because I couldn't find a whole pair for him! The other day, he pulled a handful of dirty silverware out of the dishwasher and took off towards the dining room. In the last few days, I found my favorite pair of socks and then a block in the newspaper recycling bin. Daniel's also been quite intrigued with the garbage can and has been able to open the lid for a little while. Today he managed to pull out several things while I was washing dishes. Fortunately it was nothing really bad, but I'm starting to worry that we're going to throw away something important because we didn't realize he'd put it in the recycling or the trash!

In other Daniel news, he's now able to squat down, pick something up and then stand back up again without holding onto anything. He's also getting pretty good at going up and down the stairs by himself. Whenever the gate isn't at the bottom of the stairs, his favorite game is to scramble as fast as he can up the stairs so mama will come and get him, with lots of squeals ensuing!

Daniel is walking like crazy - practically running. It's really fun to watch him explore and interact with the world around him. He loves being chased and loves chasing the cat. Unfortunately Daniel doesn't understand yet that Marshall swatting at him means that he doesn't want to play at the moment.

He's found the button that opens the microwave door. It's hard to warm up lunch or defrost something in the microwave when the door is being opened every five seconds! The thing I try to remember, though, is that Daniel is curious and learning about the world and he's fascinated by how all these things work. The times that I get frustrated that he's trying to get into the trash or into the toilet or whatever it is are the times that I forget he's a curious little boy. I get more focused on what I want him to do - "Will you please just quit doing that!?" and lose sight of the fact that he's a little person who's thinks these things are fascinating.