Every kid needs to romp in a big pile of leaves

This is Maya's first walking fall.  Free from the constraints of the stroller (sometimes) she's prone to picking up sticks, rocks, clumps of dirt . . . whatever catches her eye.  On Saturday morning Maya was walking in front of our building, stopping every other step to pick up a leaf.  She was a leaf hoarder---using one hand to smush a growing pile against her coat, using the other to grab new leaves from the ground.

And then we realized that she's never gotten to play in a big pile of leaves.

"Big pile of leaves" is a fall tradition in the suburbs.  It's possibly the most fun part of fall for kids, jumping and rolling, shuffling and kicking and throwing and tunneling through a freshly raked pile.  We called my parents in NJ, asking the rather ridiculous question, "Hey, do you guys have any leaves?"  My dad said that he'd make a big pile for Maya, we grabbed some stuff---and Parker--and headed out.

This is a very big pile of leaves. 

And I can touch them all?!

When Parker sees that Maya is holding leaves, he likes to go and pull them out of her hand.  She may have taught him this by shoving random things in his mouth and then laughing when he takes them and spits them on the ground :)

 Parker, you're takin' all my leaves!  Silly doggie.

Rearranging the pile.

 Doling out leaves to Grandma and her next door neighbor

 Parker likes soccer.  Who knew?

 That, my friends, is a happy girl.

I couldn't resist.

Parker!  Stop takin' my leaves!

*special thanks to Dave, who is letting me upload pictures despite the fact that he's in desperate need of a haircut.

Our favorite partners-in-crime:

This picture of Maya & Parker is so cute that a friend of mine wrote on my FB wall, "Hey, you should enter that picture into this photo contest!"  and I thought "Um, I don't want to be that vote-for-this-cute-picture-of-my-kid" person.

Then I saw the prize.  $1,000 to the photo that gets the most votes between today and Sunday. 

And I thought about the appointment that we have a Yale next week---meeting with a new geneticist---we have hopes that this might actually be the first step on the road to a diagnosis.  For real.  Of course, it's not covered by insurance.

And I thought about the communication device and/or apps that we're hoping to get.  A little photo prize money, well, it would be mighty nice. 

Voting starts today---you can go to this link to vote.  1 vote per person, per day. 

Thanks you.