(21 months) We celebrated Fall with a trip to the Corn Maze with Emily. We had a beautiful, sunny, and cool Saturday and took advantage of the day to play a little. We took Grandma and Grandpa with us for the day. The maze is broken into two sections and they told us that kids have an easier time on the longer section because the paths are straighter. Daddy took the lead and read the map so that we wouldn’t get lost. Emily took up the second position and liked to follow Daddy. Sometimes Emily decided that we should go a different way and Daddy would just find us the path with Emily’s detour. By the time we finished Emily had walked almost 3 miles by herself. We were amazed that she walked that far. Emily’s favorite part of the maze was the overlook and the stairs to get up to it. She cried when we had to leave that area.

Mommy and Emily had a playtime together at Cades Cove with the kickball. It was a little dancing and a little kicking. Lots of laughs and happy faces!

Here is Emily picking up her pumpkin and walking very carefully with it. She didn’t really understand what she was picking and picking up, so Mommy made sure that she picked one that she could handle. She was proud when she got it.

Mommy doesn’t always have a camera handy when Emily is playing with her Granddaddy. She misses a lot of really cute photo opportunities. Just this week I missed two cute playtimes that I wish I had photographed.

• One was while Emily was watching Dancing with the Stars with her grandparents. She went over to Granddaddy and got him to stand up. They danced together while the pretty people on TV were dancing. It was so sweet to see them dancing in a circle holding hands.
• The second was just yesterday while Emily, Granddaddy, and I were visiting on our front porch. Emily came and took Granddaddy’s hand and had him stand up. She then ran out to her swing and ask him to push her. She didn’t ask to get out of the swing until Granddaddy needed a break.

(20 months) One of the other moms at church put together a field trip for the toddlers at church to explore a pumpkin patch. It turned out that 5 little girls went. Emily had a blast playing out in the beautiful day with the other little girls. Our first stop was to feed some goats and one sheep. Emily was a little unsure of herself and only once offered her hand with food to a goat. Most of the time she was quite satisfied with handing the food to Mommy to feed to the goat or just tossing it into the pen for the goats. The next stop was at the pumpkin patch to pick our prize pumpkin. Emily really just enjoyed walking in the patch and looking around. Once she had crossed the patch she just wanted to keep going, I had to bring her back so that we could make our selection. I made sure to pick a really small one so that she would be able to carry it all by herself. The next stop was at the farmer’s corn maze. We let the ‘big’ little girls pick the path with a few suggestions from the mommies to help us have success. The girls had fun wondering around the maze. The last stop was back at their shop where they all enjoyed cool apple ciders and got coloring books. The whole event was a huge success and all of the girls had a good time!

Emily and I have been under the weather the last few days. This morning, we had cartoons on and Mommy laid down on the couch to get some extra rest. Emily took note of what I had done and stole my pillows. With each pillow, she piled them on the other end of the couch. Then she climbed up and laid her head on the pillow to share the couch with Mommy. She laid there for a moment and then sat up. She got the blanket off the back of the couch, covered herself up with it, and laid back down. She didn’t stay long with me, but it was so funny to watch her play.