  We were at a friend's house for a playdate today.. they live on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex. For the first time, I let Faith walk from the elevator to the apartment because I thought she would enjoy the trip (as opposed to me carrying her the whole way).
I knew this meant the walk would take much longer but the weather was beautiful and it was such a pleasant and fairly short stroll. She had a blast looking at everything around her. She loved leaning over the railing to look below her. Her favorite view must have been the huge water fountain in the middle of the stroll. She wouldn't budge even after several minutes of staring over the railing at the water fountain. At that time, I thought of two things.. "I wish she would move so we can get started on our playdate!
" and "I wonder what she's thinking about the water fountain. " I know I tend to get stuck staring at things for a long time too...there is just something about water that attracts me to stare...it is mesmerizing. But for all I know, she could have been staring at something other than the water fountain. In any case, I ended up having to pick her up and move her quite a few steps away in order to get her heading toward our destination.
After the playdate, which she had a great time tiring out herself, we went through the same route backwards. She stopped again at the waterfall, but this time she was exhausted and was easier to pull away from the waterfall. In other Faith news, she's figured out how to climb down the stairs. She was able to climb up the stairs around 8 months of age, and we've never really encouraged climbing down the stairs. She has also been very careful in general with climbing because she'd always wait for us to follow her and she never really attempted to go down the stairs. But today, she felt like being adventurous, and she also knew we were right next to her-- which encouraged her. She has 3 ways of going down -- she used all 3 methods in one trip down the steps. The 3 methods are backwards, walking down by holding the railing, and also sliding down in a sitting position (one step at a time).
She was ecstatic when she realized she finished at was at the bottom of the stairway. She didn't get a chance for the rest of the day to do it again, so we have yet to see if it will be a constant problem of watching her go down. I'll be surprised if it doesn't. 
