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Donavan Miller was back to his playful self on Tuesday, stacking Lego blocks with his brother and chasing a wind-up car across the floor.

The combination of a clean diaper, a warm bath and an order of french fries was all it took to renew the toddler's boundless energy after he spent Sunday night alone in a Huntingdon County cornfield.

Officials released Donavan from Tyrone Hospital Tuesday, and police have determined his condition was consistent with that of a child who survived a 20-degree night.

His biological parents, Virginia and Jonathan Miller of Altoona, gave him many hugs and kisses and took him home to play with his 3-year-old brother, Devon.

''Whenever we first saw him, his face was beet red and his hands and feet were swollen from the cold,'' Virginia Miller said. ''He was also extremely hungry.''

Experts say Donavan will suffer no long-term trauma from his 23-hour ordeal, which began when he ventured away from his foster parents' home on Bears Lane in Alexandria and ended when firemen heard his cry and came to the rescue.

''Honestly, he is already starting to forget about it,'' said Mark McKellop, a professor of psychology at Juniata College. ''He's probably going to be fine, and within a year, it will just be a story his parents can tell.''

Because of his age and limited verbal skills, there is no way of knowing what Donavan did during his overnight adventure, McKellop said.

''Since he's not able to verbalize it, he won't be able to access it in his brain at an older age,'' he said. ''Our brains get rewired, and we don't pull from our visual snapshots that we may have had as a kid.''

McKellop said kids Donavan's age think of their world in a basic way through their sensory skills, such as sight and touch. Because of that limitation, Donavan would have no way of realizing he ever put himself in harm's way.

''He'd probably just sit down and cry,'' he said. ''At that age, they're so dependent on adults that they think if they cry, someone will come. He may have been confused why it didn't work that night."

McKellop suspects Donavan probably got distracted and walked so far from his foster parents' house that he lost sight of it. He then probably wandered and cried himself to sleep, he said.

''A child's brain can shut off a lot easier than an adult's,'' he said. ''We might spend the whole night awake thinking 'This is the last night of my life.' I'm sure he had a stressful evening, but he's going to forget about it. His parents won't.''

Both boys, who have been in county care since last spring, will be relocated to a new foster home in Altoona. The Millers hope to secure an emergency hearing to regain custody of their kids.

Maryanne Burger, director of Blair County Children & Youth Services, would not discuss Donavan's case specifically, but she said many factors, including safety concerns, play into the decision to move a child.

The boys' foster parents, Naomi and Luke Martin, were trained to care for the foster children they took in, Burger said.

''There are two sets of people that love that child,'' Burger said. ''I can't tell you how grateful we all are that they found him."

Mirror Staff Writer Cori Bolger is at 946-7458.