She's Four!

Farming adventures (part 1)

One of my parenting goals in the next year is to try to take Sam and Josephine to as many farms as I can. This is in part because I recently wrote an article about it for Charlottesville Tomorrow and the Daily Progress. I want my kids to have a better appreciation of where food comes from, and how people use the land in order to provide for all of us. First up, a trip to the Fall Fiber Festival at Montpelier, where we watched the sheep dog trials.


Josephine had said she was really into sheep dogs before we came, and in the above picture, you can see she was checking out things out for a while. However, as with all little ones, fatigue set in and she got back in the double stroller and began to pout a bit that she wanted to go home.


So, then we got ice cream. Except, Josephine got bored with it after a few bites so I split her cone with Sam, who ended up with a cone and a half! Thankfully, I remembered to bring wipes to clean him up afterwards.

I tried to get a good shot of them with an alpaca, but neither wanted to get too close. There are quite a few alpaca farms, though a friend of mine told me after I saw these guys that so many have gone bust because there's not much of a market for their wool. In hindsight, I should have taken some pictures of the various products made out of alpaca wool.

By far the event of the day for the kids was hanging out in the tent with the angora rabbits. Sam in particular was entranced by the bunnies. I can't wait until they're a little older, when I plan to read them Watership Down. Sam kept saying "rabbits!" over and over again.


In all, we spent about two hours at the festival. They're a bit young to really appreciate much of anything for long, but we had a great time looking at all the different kinds of sheep. I tried to interest Josephine in the people spinning yarn from the wool, but she's a little young. Sam was a bit freaked out by the demonstration of the sheep shearing. So was I, for that matter!

ball

There's a rap that goes "I wish I were a little bit taller, I wish I were a baller..." that's pretty much Sam's theme song right now... Saw some older adolescent boys playing b-ball at the park. Ball! Ball! I'm like, yeah, you'll be crushed! He sat and watched. THen an xtra ball rolled over and he went to the part of the court they weren't using "Hey Shorty!" they shouted and he tried throwing the ball - the large basketball - to the hoop. Very concentrated. Hilarious. I mean, he's ready to roll with the boyz.

Opera

It is so weird how much Josephine loves to listen to and sing opera - which is kind of defined as anything with vibratto sung in gibberish...

Her quote of the morning: "I'm having a booger yardsale."

I wanted to get a video of Sam doing a hoedown - banging a tamborine with a stick while keeping time by stomping his heel, while hollering - it was quite impressive (and funny).

Seriously, can I get them in some commercials or something? Hee.

Studying

In this first picture, Josephine is reading an English comic annual. I also learned to read by looking at these books, which I can remember devouring as a four-year-old. I was drawn to the colors, and as I developed the ability to read, I also learned the subtle differences between American English and English English. It's going to be fun as she learns to read.

I'm always cracked up by how both kids love to read while they're being taken somewhere in the double-stroller. Sometimes after walks, Josephine will sit in the chair for a few minutes.

And here's studious Sam:


Sam has the ability to concentrate for minutes at a time on things he's trying to solve. In this he shows glints of self-reliance, which counteract the times when he reminds us that he's still a needy toddler. I love in this picture how he's concentrating to hard on getting this plastic piece to go vertical, even though that's not how they're supposed to go.

I'm not sure if it's a good thing we have two budding non-comformists?

Anyway, I have a short video I'm going to post later of him with another "research" project he was conducting the other day. You'll suffer cute overload.

Artwork

She's obsessed with drawing teeth!

Rock Press

a) Today we made salt dough and colored it. Jo made a big mermaid and Sam made a big mess.
b) Later, we went to a park and Jo found a rock. "I'm starting a rock collection," she told me. "And we can put this in a rock press to dry it out, and put tape around it, or put it in a seat to dry it, so..." We've been collecting flowers for the flower press - I just cracked up at the 'rock press' idea...
c) Where is the sun? Is the sun up all the time? Where are the planets? Where is earth? She's got all the big questions down pat.

She also enjoys making grass soup in an old pot I don't use for cooking anymore.
It's gross.
But Sam gets jealous because he doesn't have an old pot.
Sigh.