Farm Visit

I've been very delinquent in not writing about our trip to the dairy farm. We had a wonderful time with the Nelsons and their cows a few weeks ago. Steve and I were very excited to show Zach the cows, calves and tractors after we have talked about all of them in picture books repeatedly! The milking barn is a great place to explore and half the fun is that your dressed in barn clothes so it doesn't matter how big of a mess you get into. (Zach figured this part out quickly with the surrounding mud puddles.) There were tons of cats and kittens running around, 2 dogs, 2 baby calves tied up and lots of 'big cows' moving through the milking parlor. In my mind Zach would be running after the older Nelson boys and petting the calves, however, when the moment arrived, Zach was very intimated by the 'big cow' and would not leave my arms...oh well. Perhaps next visit he will enjoy the opportunity to explore a little more. The cows still made a big impression in Zach's little mind because he has talked repeatedly about the 'big cow' ever since he laid eyes on one. (Oh, and yes! that man's back that you see milking the cows is my farmer husband!)

Happy Halloween!

(For those of you that are unenlightened by the pictures....)Zach was a monkey this year for Halloween! I hadn't planned on the day being quite as involved as it turned out to be....

Our first 'stop' was our Friday morning music class. (Zach and I signed up for 5 weeks of playing instruments, singing and dancing once a week. It has been another highlight to our week-although he starts off the class very nervous he quickly warms up to the singing! I have loved watching his receptive language develop in this class and am often amazed with the directions he follows-hiding hands behind back, banging the sticks together, jumping, dancing and putting the instrument back in the bag.) All of the children came dressed up but I know you will all be surprised to hear that Zach was hands down the cutest! His costume had a little curly tail on the back and it was amusing to see it dance around the room.

The next trick-or-treat stop was Papa's (my father) work. We hadn't been there in a while and I think Papa enjoyed showing Zach-the-monkey around the office. Zach loves to see Papa (and frequently asks for him) but he was not all together thrilled with having unknown spectators look at and talk to him! (we're still developing social skills) One women brought him some animal crackers and I think that improved his outlook on the whole experience.

After a nap, we went to my grandparents' house and to see Yia yia. I hadn't actually planned on going to our neighbors but one of them had asked earlier in the week so we swung home before dinner with family to do a little more trick-or-treating. I'm so glad we did! Our four closest neighbors had each bought him a little something special. It was quite a busy and profitable day for our-little-monkey!