I feel like I've only been writing downer posts, putting into words my feelings on Roo's behavioral challenges and other pressing concerns. Well, we just had a great weekend and it's worth writing about the good stuff too, of course. There's a short, about 1 mile, walking trail not too far from our house. Yesterday the whole family went there to take doggy Taylor for a walk. Marisa loves to go there and she has been known to run/jog the whole mile before. A big plus for her is meeting other dogs with their people along the trail. Yes it is a generalization, but it certainly is true with Miss Roo that she is a highly social animal. Everywhere we go she likes to say hello to people and is usually very good at brightening their day in some way. She also likes to try to meet every canine we see out and about. I have taught her to ask the owner of the dog if it's okay for her to meet their pooch. She asks me "Can I ask?," and I tell her yes or no depending on the situation. My answer is almost always yes you can ask, unless I get the sense that the dog is not a kid friendly version. Most people are more than willing to let her go up to their dog for a little face time and she is learning that if they say no, it means it's time to walk on and not pursue the request further. I feel this is a great way for her to continue to improve her social skills and it's always a good thing in my opinion (okay, dog lover here!) to interact with dogs.
Today we drove about an hour away to go for a family hike, pooch included again, on a great trail in the woods near Mt. Hood outside of Portland. The sky was cloudy, which is par of the course this time of year around here, but it didn't start raining until we were back in the car headed home. Marisa is a great hiker. She does get tired after a while but she loves being out in nature and really does very well for a kid her age. We were walking along the trail heading down to banks of a large, rushing stream, and we had to step over rocks and large roots plus move on and off the trail because all the rain we've had left big puddles and lots of mud on the main trail. Daddy, Nadia and Taylor were in the lead and I followed behind Roo, mostly to make sure she was with our group at all times (she's getting way better at that). I watched how she made her way over and around all the obstacles on the ground and was very impressed with her motor planning. I continue to be amazed at all the new vocabulary I've learned in the past 8 years. The idea that she got tons of great proprioceptive input as she put her feet down over the roots on the ground, would never have crossed my mind before. So, once again, I am happy to say that living with my wonderful child and learning about her each day is the proverbial win win for me, even if I get bogged down in the negative at times. She has taught me so much in her short life so far, and even in my darkest moments, I wouldn't trade her for anything.
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