We’ve been stuck inside a lot the last couple of days so today after Simon woke up from his afternoon nap I decided we just had to get out. There is so much beauty out there right now with the changing of the seasons. I want to start teaching Elias about the beauty of creation. I want him to appreciate the beauty all around us. So I decided that we would go on a “nature hunt” in which we look for the colors of fall out in our neighborhood. I explained the whole thing to Elias, and at first he wanted to ride in the stroller. I told him that he needed to walk so he could look better, and he was ok with that. As we left the building, he exclaimed, “We’re going on a neighbor hunt!”
The first thing Elias found was one of those “helicopter” things…I think it is the seed of a maple tree. He enjoyed it for a few moments, and then tossed it to the wind.
In the beginning, Elias was not only interested in finding things, but he wanted to take the pictures himself. So with some supervision, and some help pointing in the general direction of what he spotted, he took the following pictures on our nature hunt. ( I also cropped a few of them a bit) They are quite beautiful:
Simon was (of course) with us as well. I recently made a switch to the ergo instead of the bjorn, and I will never look back. He enjoys himself back there, and carrying your child on the back is way better!
Elias found this leaf and was excited because it had “lots of colors!” He held it up in the air saying, “Look it’s beautiful!”
He also found a few more leaves, and an evergreen tree that he was excited about:
After awhile he got more excited about running around outside than looking for colors of fall or taking pictures. He just ran and ran, laughing and yelling. I was so glad as I watched him run that I had taken him outside. The boy needed to run around a bit…or a lot! We walked about a mile total, and by the end he had run for about half of it (forcing me to walk pretty fast to keep up). He had bright pink flushed cheeks. That’s how I know I did my job correctly. Flushed cheeks are a sign of life being lived.
Near the end, Elias found a stick he liked. I told him to hold it up so that I could take a picture of it. He waved it around and around, so I told him to hold still for a few seconds. This is what I got:
You can just see the “come on mom” written all over his face.
Finally, I made him stop to take a picture with me before we went back inside. We had so much fun. (Poor Simon is not pictured, but he is back there behind me)
