Lost in Place

Truth is, Madeleine doesn't get outside much. Which is really unfortunate because she loves to be outside. She will whine and cry to be taken outside all the time. She's as bad as the dogs were, she'll stand at the doors and whine until you let her outside. She'll grab your hand and take you to the door to convince you to take her outside. Of course, while she's out there, she has to get down and run around. Our yard isn't exactly "toddler friendly." All sides of the house slope down so there's really no where to safely let her play without her rolling to the bottom if she loses her balance. The driveway? Completely out of the question. So she doesn't get to play a whole lot outside. We go on walks, that's one of her favorite things and is one of her first words. But that's with her strapped in to the stroller. I will let her walk on the road while I get the mail (we're at the end of a cul-de-sac so it's safe for her) but that never lasts very long. Yes, I feel guilty as can be about it because now it's starting to get cool and the time outside is starting to shrink even more.

This weekend we took her to Great Country Farms for a fall outing. I knew she would have a good time because it was time spent outside. We didn't even bother taking her stroller, it's very child-friendly so we let her walk. We hadn't been there before so we weren't sure exactly what we were in for, I just knew I wanted to go to a pumpkin patch. It was perfect!

The farm was awesome. It had farm animals, which she loved. The turkeys, rabbits, pigs, goats, and even the unidentifiable bird-thingies were all "dogs" to her. She was fascinated with the stinky, smelly, huge pigs and the bunnies, she'd get right up close. We found a cage of baby birds near the restrooms as we were getting ready to leave. She made us walk by those a number of times. She'd walk over and then make one of us pick her up so she could actually see them. It's kind of amazing what she's learned to communicate - and how - in the last little while. And the things she puts together in her head. Who is this kid? Where'd she come from?

While we were waiting for the tractor to take us over to the pumpkin patch, she sat down in the rocks and starting throwing them from one side of her to another. I was making sure she didn't put any in her mouth and she was doing really well. I looked up to talk to Dan for a second and the next thing I knew, she had brown slobber all down her chin and was making "ew! gross! get it out! right now!" noises. So she had her first dirt while at the farm too. Apparently it was not a hit.

We rode in some trailers pulled by a tractor from the farm over to the pumpkin patch. On the way over, she had no idea what was going on - she held perfectly still, barely daring to breathe. Once we got over there, she got out and was fearless on the ground. Burs? Gourds? Sharp sticks? Mean, nasty roots and cut down stems to trip her? Ha! She was a baby on a mission. She wandered, touching everything she could. Of course she fell a few times, but she'd get up, brush herself off, and keep going. She had a great time. And was a lot more relaxed on the ride back to the farm.

We did pick out a couple of pumpkins. While she was too tired by then to really be interested, she loved just getting down and running around on the grass. It really was a nice day, I think we all enjoyed ourselves. It was so fun to get out and watch her see and explore new things. Really, isn't that the point of all this anyway?