Panda

The girls and I saw on the news the other day that there was a baby panda born at the San Diego Zoo. Miss Mouse picked up right away on the fact that there was a zoocam through which you can watch the little "it" anytime. They won't know if it is a boy or girl for a few weeks.  Though she didn't really understand what the zoocam was, it sounded cool. I explained that it was sort of like skyping with the pandas except that only we could see them, not the other way around at all.

Now keep in mind the girls have just seen video of a giant panda mom and her tiny cub on the news.

Also keep in mind that we did look on the zoo website and viewed the sleeping panda and baby for several minutes. I thought it was fairly boring to watch a bear sleep; the girls thought it was "super interesting".

So, we're clear on the fact that there has been quite a lot of panda watching by this point?

Good. Then my semi-despair at the question of the Mice may be more understandable.  After watching the zoocam, Sunny asks me:
"Mommy, are you bigger than a giant panda?"

Um, no. Not even right now, thank you very much. 

Miss Mouse was so astonished at my answer that she reiterated the question, apparently to be sure I had understood:
"Mom, really, a giant panda is bigger than you?"

Shockingly, yes. Yes, they are. I even googled it, and a giant panda female is around 200 pounds with a giant panda male being around 250. Add to that their massively fluffy hair.....I'm not sure who was more shocked by this conversation, but I was definitely the most entertained!

Harvesting

My parents are beginning their wheat harvest. They've already finished harvesting their peas. My sister and my nephew are up at the farm, ready to help....my sister, at least. Matthias will help by lightening the days for Grammy and Grandpa Bob in between tractor repairs, truck repairs, radio repairs, the normal harvest events!

But we're here.

We love it here. We're doing great with our basic schedule of a relaxed breakfast, kindergarten, play time, lunch, reading time, "Mama time" (each girls' time with me individually)/quiet time (each girls' time alone), more play time, dinner, clean up, and bedtime. I'm a farm girl, though, and it's been several years since I've been home during wheat harvest.

Sooooo.....today we drove out to the farm that grows the food we get through our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) to take part in our harvest event opportunities of sweet corn, green beans, and tomatoes. As usual, I overestimated myself and thought I could feasibly do the harvesting by myself with the girls. It didn't seem like something that would really be up Mike's alley.  Fortunately, I'm married to someone smarter than myself, so Mike just shook his head at my "do-it-myself" plan! We loaded up immediately after breakfast this morning and drove the hour or so out of town to "the farm" (I made sure Sunny knew it wasn't really "THE farm").

The first pick we decided on was the tomatoes. To our surprise and delight, the girls' two little friends hopped out of their van with their daddy at the same time we were hopping out! What fun!  Each of our families were pretty happy to come away with two five gallon pails of tomatoes!

For us it was then on to the cornfield. Miss Mouse identified this pick as her absolute favorite. In her words, "I felt so 'big girl' when we picked corn because when Daddy would take the corn up to the van, he left me to keep picking, just like a grown-n-up!".  To be clear, this field consisted of a few rows of corn - long rows, but it was a narrow field, making it definitely safe to "leave" Miss Mouse in the field. Sunny, on the other hand, did not appreciate the corn pick quite as much as the tomato. With the tomatoes, she carefully and delicately placed the tomatoes I picked into the pail we shared. The corn just seemed "scratchy" to her, and she complained basically the whole time that she "could not walk in here".  Thankfully it did not take as long as it could have to pick 120 ears of corn. The enthusiasm of Miss Mouse certainly did not hurt in the speed with which the ears of corn added up!

We had a much happier Sunny when we moved onto the bean field. She refused to pick any beans, but she enjoyed picking bouquets of weeds. Miss Mouse was pooped out by the time we got to the beans, too, and ended up dumping her bucket into mine. So much for my idea of picking three of the buckets full of beans (we have "tickets" to use and could have used two tickets to pick three buckets rather than one ticket to pick two buckets...we actually could have gotten four buckets for two tickets, but I only had three buckets along...and we were already out of bags due to the massive amounts of corn and tomatoes already in the back of the van)! It turned out to be just fine, though, because by the time my bucket was 85% full, my abdominal muscles, the ones that still even exist, were screaming at me that they were completely and totally done bending over, done crawling on the ground, and definitely done having to stand back up again. Thus, we came away with two nearly-full five gallon buckets of green beans. I was thankful that we have grown purple beans in our backyard in the past so that the girls were not as enamored by the purple bean field as the rest of the children there today; my body really couldn't have taken anymore picking.

Sunny's favorite part of the day came just as we were getting ready to leave. I needed to turn in our tickets at the main farmyard garden, so I turned the girls loose on the flower field, which is a "free" pick meaning that we didn't need to use a ticket for it; they could just pick as many flowers as they wanted. While they picked their fills of flowers, Mike headed over to the free basil pick for one last hurrah for me.  All I can say is that this man must love me; he filled our remaining five gallon pail with basil for me to turn into pesto! Yep, I thought it was loving when he engineered a beautiful engagement proposal, but I couldn't have imagined he'd ever be happily picking a five gallon pail of basil for me! 

It wasn't until tonight that Sunny did confess to me that she stayed "close" to her sister "when we were picking fwowers because I was a little scared to pick them alone". She did say the flower pick was her favorite part of the day, but I was glad she was willing to identify her scared feelings (she often refuses to identify a feeling....the best way I can tell if I "hit it" correctly is that the correct feeling is the one at which she shouts, "NO!" the loudest!), even though I felt like a horribly neglectful mother leaving her to pick flowers alone if she was scared!  I did explain to her that I was watching her the entire time and was never far away, though it must have felt like it.

After all this harvesting of yummy, locally-grown, organic (I think?) goodness, where did we grab lunch on the way home? Yep, that's right. McDonald's. Ish!  What a fun day, though!  I still miss the smell of wheat and the taste of it, too, but it was ridiculously fun to harvest so much food with the Mice that we know we'll be enjoying all winter long! I couldn't stop smiling the whole way back home!

Pink

 Pink. It's my favorite color.

 

Apparently the girls were feeling particularly feminine today and particularly fond of pink (thanks to Auntie Steph for the super cute outfits!), so I took advantage of the copious amounts of pink floating around to do some of our own back-to-school shots.  It doesn't particularly matter to me that we started our kindergarten on June 4 or that I have pictures of Miss Mouse leaping into the air with excitement on her first day or that as everyone else is gearing up to start school tomorrow, we are getting set for a break sometime soon.....Between all the back-to-school talk circulating in their groups of friends and all the buy-our-store's-clothes-advertisements during the news these days, the girls were eager to be "models" for our back-to-school "advertisements"!

Our sweet Miss Mouse looks more grown-up everyday! She certainly is a school girl!

 



 

Sunny's been having some sleeping trouble as of late - just off and on nightmares, but she tends to be awake for a looooong time after having one - so she's a little bit more difficult to capture on camera these days. I miss her big, cheesy, for-the-camera grin and am hoping it comes back someday soon (along with many, many, many solid nights of sleep in a row for her....my solid nights are numbered anyway, but as long as she gets them, I can manage without them, I think!).

This isn't a sad Miss Mouse; it's a contemplative Miss Mouse.

 



 

 

Would you believe the day started out with these two Mice in pajamas having a "wrestling contest" in the living room? Now, here by afternoon, they're all frilly and floofy in pink and pearls. I love it!

 

 

Last but not least, I joined the Mice for some 36 week pictures. I've been wanting to get some since Monday, when we were actually 36 on-the-dot, but it appears we have been losing a shocking amount of daylight in the past few weeks. By the time we get the Mice to bed, there isn't enough daylight in our backyard for a proper without-flash photo of my tummy! So, I did what I could with a tripod in the backyard this afternoon. If nothing else, I think these show how deliriously excited these two big sisters are to meet "Brother". The other day I pointed out to Sunny that he will have a name other than "Brother" once he is living outside of me; she was sort of shocked by that and seemed somewhat disappointed even after I attempted to console her with the fact that she could still call him Brother if she wanted! The next few weeks will be an adventure; this whole pregnancy has been quite the adventure sharing it with two small, big sisters - a precious, amazing, humbling, exciting, exhausting, exhiliarating, lovely adventure.

My Nephew's New Blog

I probably should announce this as my sister's new blog, but since she clarified in an early post that she would likely not post many pictures of herself on "her" blog, I've decided to credit the whole thing to little Matthias!  Really, though, Laura is a great writer, often hilarious, and you can find her blog linked on the list to the left or at www.loghomeonthehill.blogspot.com  I'm sure she'd appreciate any comments or emails if you enjoy visiting (and maybe they would encourage her to keep updating it....mainly for Auntie Maria's benefit....!), but I know she sort of wants to keep her blog, its existence, and its address away from facebook; this is sort of important. So, if you have a moment, take time to enjoy a visit to her log home on the hill!

All of a Sudden

It seems like all of a sudden this little Miss Mouse who we were just rocking to sleep has turned into one of the kindest, sweetest, most sensitive, and bravest young girls we could ever hope to be around.

There doesn't seem to be much that phases her or frightens her beyond willingness to attempt. I told her next year Mommy would show her how to flip on this contraption.

Notice that Sunny is developing a bit different attitude toward new experiences....



Miss Mouse no sooner finished the trampoline experience than she started on the rock wall.



This was serious business for her, too! She was pretty pleased to hear that she had made it above the spotter's head.



The weekend after our return from the above adventures, which were enjoyed by my parents, Miss Mouse headed out to visit her other grandparents and her aunt at the lake! This was her inaugural independent visit, so this was a big deal. Notice that her suitcase, which was mine as a child, says "setting sail for grandma's". She was so excited when she got out there that she told her Daddy, who had volunteered to drive her out so that I didn't have to drive her and leave her, that "You can leave now, Daddy!".

Miss Mouse had a great time soaking up all the undivided attention that weekend, for sure! She, I think, would have spent the entire time swimming in the lake if they had let her! It helps that the lake is about the temperature of a lukewarm bath this year, but her appetite for swimming is fairly insatiable, regardless of water temperature. She had a blast thanks to her grandparents and auntie!

Sunny and I had a good time together, too, although I think I enjoyed it more than did Sunny. Our first adventure together was to go to the park. She did play and have fun, but as we left, she wondered if her sister would be home when we got there. We had to call Miss Mouse at least twice in the 48-hours she was gone and sent a couple of emails, as well. Sunny and I shared the special experience of hatching our first butterfly and then setting her free, which was exceedingly cool. We also did a little shopping for "Brother" at a sale at the mall on Saturday. Sunny enjoyed picking out some sale-outfits for him. The first night, Sunny slept fine, but the second night, she was up, quietly crying because she was so "wone-wee" (lonely). For the most part, she just looked forward to her big sister's return through the whole weekend, even though we had some fun and special alone times together.

Readjustment home was actually fairly difficult seeing as how Sunny was far more excited to see Miss Mouse than Miss Mouse was to see Sunny. It made for a heartbroken Sunny, and a Miss Mouse who for several days sulked around crabbily, stating from time to time, "I wish I was still at the lake. I don't want to be here.". 

I knew "our Mouse" was "back", though, on Thursday when, after being ignored by some toddlers at the park, Sunny was feeling very sad in the afternoon, and Miss Mouse agreed to let Sunny help with a puzzle ("help" being the operative word!) as long as I stayed to supervise the, ahem, "helping". Then yesterday (Friday), Sunny threw a fit at lunch about not getting a blue flashlight from the library program; hers was black; Miss Mouse had grabbed the blue one first - at the library. I simply told Sunny she could either have the black one or not have one, so she snuffled around awhile and forgot about it. Later, we were watching a random fire engine parked on our street (?)....when I pulled the screen door closed, it pinched Sunny's finger, and her sad little sobs belied not just a pinched finger but a really difficult week with quite a few hurt feelings. Miss Mouse waited patiently for a break in the sniffling and then said, "I know what will make you feel better. I want you to see something", running off, she returned with, yep, the blue flashlight and continued, "You can have this one. I will take the black one. You can have this one forever. I don't need it back. I love you.".  I wish, I wish, I wish that I knew what to say to Miss Mouse to convey how very, very incredible her gesture was. I hugged her and told her I was so proud of her, but it just doesn't seem that there is enough I can do to express to her how happy I am to be her mommy. Anyway, yep, that was when I knew that she had "adjusted" back to being home and sharing her attention all.the.time.  I know she will look forward to her next independent visit, and I'm hoping we've all (mainly me!) learned a bit about her reintegration to the "us" that she has to live in!

 

Notice anything? As Miss Mouse told someone yesterday, "I have a surprise for you in my mouth!"

Yes, indeed, we have lost a tooth at our house! She has several of them in there that are loose, but yesterday after (and during) breakfast she was particularly working on the bottom left one. I wiggled it after breakfast and squirmed because it really was quite loose.

We were skyping with my sister, nephew, and parents, and Auntie Laura [brilliantly] suggested to Miss Mouse that she should work on "twisting" the loose tooth to really get it worked out! So, of course, the brave Mouse started right away working on the twisting motion.

Then, she decided she wanted to play her kazoo for her auntie, cousin, and grandparents......and then Sunny decided she wanted to play the same kazoo (except that they don't actually play the same one because they have a hyper-clean mommy who insists that they have their own kazoos....Sunny had just figured out that if she put her mouth on the top hole, she could sort of "play" her sister's kazoo without actually touching the same area with her own spit). Before I could intervene, I saw Sunny grab for the kazoo, which was in Miss Mouse's mouth. I clapped my hands over my own mouth as I saw Sunny come away with the kazoo and heard a "snap" sound.....and then saw Miss Mouse approaching with something in her hand.

She couldn't have been prouder. It didn't seem to matter that there was a good amount of blood or that she had to press on her tooth hole with a cold washcloth for a bit; she was just super, super proud and really happy with her little sis for "pulling out my tooth with a kazoo!".

We attended a family wedding last night, and Miss Mouse made the rounds through the entire room telling anyone who would listen the story of her tooth loss "by kazoo". She was hilarious about it, too, using her hands and eyes to really make her story hit home for people. She earned herself a dollar from her Great Uncle Randy and then another dollar from her Grandpa Dick before the night was over. She was in awe of the fact that she was the owner of $2.00! She figured she would be able to buy something very expensive, especially when we talked on the way home about how many dimes those dollars were comprised of (we've been working on dimes as a way of both understanding currency and reinforcing the counting-by-tens concept).

Of course, the tooth was placed in a special spot before bed, with the promise that the Tooth Fairy, who she alternately calls the Tooth Angel, would be stopping by at some point in the night. Personally, I'm fairly sure the Tooth Fairy just really wanted to give her enough money to buy what she had her heart set on - a car from the grocery store - and so she left another $2.00 for this first tooth. Miss Mouse is fascinated by toy cars (she's going to do just fine with little Brother!), and she's been eyeing these cars at the grocery store for months. I've consistently said "no" to buying one for her and just told her to save her money or put it on a Christmas/birthday list, but when she asked if she'd have enough money for the car last night, I was hoping the, hmmm, Tooth Fairy would make sure she did. As it turns out, they are expensive little buggers, so she had to add $2 of her birthday money to get enough for it, but still. She got her vehicle, and that's what counts!

She didn't care whether it was a car, van, pickup, whatever...but it had to be green.

As I'm reflecting on the past few weeks in Miss Mouse's development, noting all the independence she's embracing, appreciating her can-do attitude and her sweetness, I keep thinking that this type of thing should make me want to cry, or to lament that time has gone so fast. Now, I do, of course, shake my head and wonder how it could have been five years ago on August 17th that she got that bottom left tooth, but it's not a bittersweet feeling I'm filled with as much as a feeling of thankfulness. It's hardest for me to believe that I'm so blessed to be a mommy to this lovely little girl; if I focus hard enough, I can still feel how badly I wanted to care for a baby, a child during the time period where my only little girl did not need me anymore. I can feel how unreal it seemed that I would ever get the chance to tuck a child into bed, hold her, hug her, sing to her, love her. So, as these incredible steps of growth come in the life of Miss Mouse, I find myself not dreading them as much as appreciating the blessing of being part of them. That's not an indictment of those moms who have a hard time with teeth being lost or increasing independence. It's just an explanation of why I think it feels different for me. None of our children will ever replace our first two little ones that we didn't get to meet alive here, but having these moments with the babies we do get to care for....it's a surreal feeling. It's sort of like getting something that you thought was stolen from you forever. Of course, those moments were stolen from us with Hope, but to be able to experience them with her siblings? It's honestly incredible.

That said, I don't have to face the separation of kindergarten starting in a couple of weeks the way many of my friends do with their little five-year-olds. I have no doubt their kiddos are going to love it and do great, but I surely can't say that as well as I'm doing with all of Miss Mouse's new independence that I would do well with that! I'm sure I'd be one of the sobbing mommies in the hallway with everyone else! That, again, leads me to an appreciative moment where I am so thankful for the opportunity to continue to spend the entire day with this special little girl (and her sister, and soon her brother, of course!).

Now our biggest question is: Will any more teeth come out before "Brother" comes to live at our house??!

One More Calendar Change!

Today when I changed the calendars over to August I celebrated that there is only one calendar change left until we (likely) meet our new little guy! Yay!

We're at 33 weeks this week and are eagerly, yet patiently, counting down the weeks. The paper chain is getting shorter and shorter, which means the girls' excitement is reaching new levels. Sunny went shopping with me last weekend while her older sister was spending time with her grandparents, so I think "Brother" has become even a bit more real for his three-year-old sister than he was before.

We'll be doing a biophysical profile every two weeks from here on out, although it will be three weeks from the one we had last week until our next one just due to scheduling difficulties. Initially, they wanted to "monitor" us every 72 hours because we fit into the category of "have had a full-term stillbirth". Even though Mike and I appreciate the extra care, we felt like being monitored twice each week was actually more anxiety-provoking for us than anxiety-relieving. When I explained our concerns to my OB, she definitely concurred and explained that the policy was developed for most "other" people who, by and large, don't know the full reasons their baby died. Many couples choose not to have an autopsy performed, and we'd never criticize that decision, as much as we are thankful that we did. It was really a nauseating decision to make, but there were really so many of those.....Anyway, seven years later we continue to be thankful for the information that decision provided us and the encouragement we can take from it (that we are at no higher risk than the average person for ever having something catastrophic happen again - which does not mean nothing could, just that our risk isn't higher).  So, we and the doctor decided that every-other-week monitoring would be helpful for everyone, as long as nothing concerning shows up.

Cravings: Watermelon, cantelope, salad, cold water, cold grapes, ice, lime/lemon water

Weight gain: I think 19 pounds is the latest total.

Sleeping: I have no desire this time to sleep on my stomach - perhaps because it is so massive! With Miss Mouse and Sunny both, I had to fight really hard to stay off my tummy, even as it grew. For some reason I'd wake up and my body would have turned onto my stomach, squishing the poor little girlies! That hasn't happened this time, but I definitely switch from side to side a lot. It's like there is some definite reason that I feel more comfortable for 20 minutes on my left side and then suddenly have to change to my right side. I sleep fine as long as I don't drink like a dehydrated camel before bedtime, but it is funny to me that I don't have to fight the tummy-sleeping this time!

Other: I am finding it hard to get up from the ground/floor these days! The yard needs weeding something fierce, but I'm dreading it! I'm pretty sure our neighbor to the north is crossing her fingers that it gets done before her entire yard is contaminated by our thistles! Other than that, it is just getting more and more exciting thinking about meeting our newest family member and adjusting to life as a family of five. Having been induced with all three girls, I'm hoping that this little guy will just arrive whenever he is ready, so I'm trying not to be too impatient or to rule out a post-September-17th birthdate for him. We are excited, though, to see him!

Life is [a] Fair!

For the most part, my sister and I had a fairly idyllic childhood. Summers were especially special. They were s.l.o.w. and smelled of soil, grain dust, wind, not-much-rain (unfortunately), grass, grease, sweat, and vinyl pickup seats. We had time for things like suppers in the field, quietly playing after the noon meal so the men, who were already exhausted, could take ten minute naps, bouncing along with Mom on the never-ending task of lawn-mowing (perhaps not the safest idea in the world nor one I'd do with my own critters, but I loved it!), biking into town to play at the park and maybe get a grape soda from "Vince's store", or driving into the bigger town on a nice night to get a "slush" and look at the fields' progress on the backroads way home. We savored summer, and in many ways, I suppose that's why with our girls we've ended up saying "no" to a lot of the really, really good activities they could be involved in all summer (swimming lessons all summer, t-ball, dance classes, park programs, programs the children's museum, art programs, etc., etc., etc. - it's sooooo hard to pick and choose a few things to take advantage of and then to leave the rest in favor of teaching our children to just "be").  Mike's "being" time happened most out in the middle of a lake, and over the 4th we had a wonderful day spent like that (none of which was captured on camera because the silly photographer - me - left it up at the house.....).

Anyway, when my family took a vacation day or two, it often involved a fair which is probably why I braved (or "stupided"?) the trek to our county fair last Wednesday with the girls when it was 96 degrees with high humidty. I refused to even check the heat index - because it didn't matter. We brought along water and snacks and lots of sunscreen, and we headed out for an afternoon of fun at the fair!

The girls were as thrilled as I was with this hay bale display. Miss Mouse insisted we needed a picture for Grandpa Bob, the former hog producer.

There were cute little pictures for the girls to stick their heads through all over the place, but there were only two that even Miss Mouse could reach. Looks good on a tractor, doesn't she?!

She's pretty proud to be able to really reach this one.

Sunny can almost reach. Almost!



This is a duckling water slide. There is a kiddie pool at the bottom that they "slide" down into and splash around in. We didn't see any use the actual slide, which really did have water running down it, but they walked down frequently to splash.

It's maybe hard to understand what this is from just a picture, but they are all little peeps of some sort (some are chickens, some are button quail, etc.) that are meandering around a miniature "fair" scene. The light you can see is a heat lamp for the babies.

More of the fair scene.



This is the bottom of a tree house. Can you see the little chick thinking about entering? You can't tell very well, but he's actually green. He was dyed with food coloring (it doesn't hurt them, and they don't care!).



If little green peep is brave enough to enter, he can climb all the way up the tree house from level to level through these little tunnels. At each level there is a sort of flat "play area" for the peeps. It's hilarious!



I thought Grandpa Dick would particularly appreciate this peep display; there aren't any babies in this picture, but the display is an airport crawling with peeps!



They're all hanging out in the hangar! I think it was mostly button quail in this display.



The girls are fascinated by each display. We tend to stay in this agricultural education barn for at least 45 minutes.



These peeps have a castle!



Miss Mouse answered a question correctly, so she got to race a remote controlled car. She thought it was pretty awesome, especially when she ran into a little boy's car and was able to push his back by moving hers forward. It wasn't that they were actually "racing"; she just thought it was hilariously funny that her car was deciding where his should go! The question she answered was "what is a female chicken called?". She looked at the girl asking it and said, "Um, a hen" really sweetly, but sort of as if the girl must have been from Mars or something to ask her a question like that!



More brightly-colored chickens! I wonder what they think about themselves.....



Apparently last year there was a big stink about the coloring of the chickens/peeps because some people thought it was horrible and cruel. I'm not sure why it would be, given the amount of people who dye their own hair with food coloring or kool-aid and such, but I was glad to see that the 4-H clubs (or whoever does it) stuck with it this year. They're awfully adorable!

I did nearly tip over, though, when the young 4-H girl we were visiting with (she was telling the girls about chicken ears and such - she must have been about 11) was asked by a grown woman, "So, when they grow up, are their eggs different colors, too?". At first, neither I nor the 4-H girl realized what she was asking, so the girl said, "Yes, some are brown; some are white; some have a greenish tinge; some are spotted." Then the grown woman said, "Oh, wow! So will some be purple, too?". Honestly, I nearly tipped over. The poor young girl just said, "Oh, no. Um, that's just food coloring. It wears off."

Miss Mouse was so very, very proud to be able to hold her own peep!



Around this huge round table, they had bins of nearly every kind of crop grown in our state. You were supposed to look at it and then lift the flap to see what it was. Miss Mouse got the sunflowers right, and she was impressed to see the difference between confectionary and oil (Daddy was describing that to her the other day....he has a history with sunflowers having done some rogueing (sp?) of them in his earlier days!). She also got several others correct, and Sunny just loved having her hands in all the bins. Personally, I learned that "pink beans" are grown here. Someday I would like to see a field of "pink beans", I think, and I believe I know someone who can hook me up with that opportunity....



Here Sunny is gazing at a whole box full of hatching eggs. The girls got to watch them hatch, from where they were just pecking out of their shells, to where they squirmed their wet, little bodies out into the world. When they dried off, they were taken over to the different display areas, but they made sure to keep a few dry ones for children to hold from this display.



None of the 4-H kids watching the displays would let Sunny hold a peep, an opinion of which I was completely understanding! The adult woman running the egg-hatching table, though, didn't seem concerned at all. In fact, it was I that was sweating profusely by the time Sunny finally decided she'd held the little guy long enough (I kept making sure she was holding him directly over the table so that when - not if; it happened several times - he jumped out of her hands, he didn't go *splat* on the floor). Truth be told, she'd have stood there all day with him (she would periodically put him up to her chin and "snuggle" him) if I'd let her. It took quite awhile to get her to even consider parting with her new friend. She was so proud and felt like such a big girl!



After we had toured the ag education barn thoroughly, it was time to head back out into the blistering sunshine. The only item left on the girls' agendas before seeing the rabbit and poultry barns on our way out was to ride a carnival ride.  I had told them they could each pick one, thinking that it wasn't fair to let one or the other completely decide which ride they should go on. Plus, I was afraid Miss Mouse might pick the high-flying-for-a-small-child bumblebee ride that I wasn't comfortable letting Sunny go on without an adult!

It shouldn't surprise me by this point, and yet it still does.....the girls walked around a bit and decided - together - that they wanted to go on the spinning dragon ride. I suppose at some point in the future, they'll start understanding that if they had each picked a ride, they could have potentially weasled their way into getting on two rides a piece from me, but right now, they're just so incredibly sweet and innocent in that way. It almost (almost!) makes me feel guilty!

So here they are, hand-in-hand, wearing their butterfly sunvisors from the zoo last weekend, waiting for their turns on the spinning dragons. Since their Daddy is not a big fan of carnival rides (to put it lightly!), and since I'm perfectly fine not having them running around the carnival all day when there is so much else to do at the fair, we don't get the all-day ride passes....which means it cost $6 for the two of them to go on this ride! I had a little sticker shock, but considering we made sure to arrive during the "free admission" period....



They walked in rather hesitantly but ended up picking this purple spinning dragon.  For some reason, that I think we'll just chalk up to pregnancy hormones as long as I can use that excuse, I suddenly had this humongous lump in my throat as they climbed into the dragon and out of my sight! Honestly, I was thankful for the heat making me drip sweat because it wasn't nearly so obvious that I had tears in my eyes!

Somewhat, I was scared to pieces that Sunny was going to be, well, scared to pieces. Or sick. Puking. Screaming for mommy.

I don't know why I bother worrying about that. I should know by now that Miss Mouse would hold her and take care of her! But, um, yeah, that's not exactly what I wanted to pin on a five-year-old, either.

So, they climbed in, and I cried.

Thankfully (thankfully?!) the ride ended up breaking! Chalk one up for Daddy and his distrust of carnival rides, I guess!  The girls got through about 1/2 a ride before I saw the carnival worker struggling with the machine. I continued to sweat harder as I wondered if he was trying to get them stopped and couldn't. He fumbled and pulled this switch and that switch and pressed this button and that button. Finally they all stopped, and he let the kids all off. This was, though, after I had been, ahem, privileged enough to see the girls spin by me about three times. A mom and her probably-four-year-old boy were also in the same cart as the girls, which did make me feel a lot better. Still, I was glad to see them get off!

When I asked Sunny if she liked it, she said she "wuved" it, but that the other little boy hadn't liked spinning very much. She then pointed out that he must have been a "baby" because he didn't understand that it was supposed to spin. Hmmm...yeah, I'm pretty sure he was at least a year older than Sunny, but, hey, who's counting?!

Miss Mouse was mostly concerned with whether or not they had been supposed to be spinning the table/wheel contraption. She was most relieved to find out that it had been perfectly appropriate. Sound like anyone you once knew, Grammy?



Because the other ride had broken, the carnival man gave the girls each a free ticket for another ride. It was really nice of him, and I can very, very truly say that I enjoyed watching them on this one immensely!

Doesn't Sunny look thrilled, though?!

I'm not sure if you can really read Sunny's expression in this one, but she's gritting her teeth and smiling really wide at the same time. It's an almost frightening expression, and she kept it on herself the entire rest of the ride. I still have no idea what it meant for sure, but she's not had any nightmares or anything. I guess she must have enjoyed the ride?



Miss Mouse wanted me to take this picture for someone special. I think you'll know who you are!!!!



This picture was also a Miss Mouse request for my same friend. They were such funny-looking birds that I couldn't hold the camera still. I tried to adjust my settings properly and be of a serious photographic mind, but with those silly hair-dos and their mouths hanging open (much the way I suppose mine was most of the afternoon!), I couldn't seem to hold still or to get a decent camera setting for them. But, alas, there they are in all their ridiculous glory!



Before we left for the afternoon, Miss Mouse begged me to ask how much the horse rides were. They were the sort where you ride on a pony in a circle, and there was no price posted anywhere. They were positioned next to the petting zoo, which was free, so I think she had some hope that they might be free. I told her that I didn't intend to spend much money on her riding a pony in circles when she can do that this fall at our church's Rally Sunday event.....and can ride a horse at her aunt's house, too, for that matter. Plus, privately I thought the poor animals looked horribly hot on that 96 degree day and felt sort of bad even putting 40-pound Miss Mouse on one of them!

She convinced me to say, "How much are the rides?" and then if they were too much to say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't have that much cash, but thank you". So, all the way over, she asking me if I remembered what she had told me to say and if I would say it just the way she recommended. Quite the little coach, she was!

As it turned out, the rides were $5 a piece, so it would have been $10 for the girls to both ride in a circle. Not going to happen, given what I explained above. I suppose if we had no access to another horse all year, then, maybe.....still....$10 for a circular horse ride just sort of rubs a farm girl wrong, I guess.

In her last-ditch attempt to get us to stay at the fair longer, Miss Mouse begged to go "pan" for "semi-precious stones". That event was in a barn (shade!) and was advertised clearly as costing $1. I gave in, and we spent the next 30 minutes "panning" for these stones. It turned out to be really cool! There were members of the local rock club, which I didn't know we had, wandering around explaining what some of the different types of stones were, and it was really fun for both girls. Sunny was completely wilted before we were done, though, because although we had the advantage of shade, the barn had taken away all our breeze, leaving us a sweaty, weary bunch of girls. At one point, poor Sunny was standing by our table and tipped over. The grandfatherly rock expert was pretty sure he had seen her eyes close, and that she had fallen asleep! If a girl can sleep-eat, she probably can sleep-pan-for-stones, too, I suppose! Shortly after that, we left and headed for the van, though. I really do try to not wear my children out!

All-in-all, we had a wonderful time at the fair again this year. There were a few events we missed, mainly on account of my not being able to muster up enough energy to head back out there again for a cattle show or horse show, both of which the girls wished they could have seen (yes, truly, they enjoy cattle shows where you sit and listen to someone on an often-poor-sound-system explain which of the animals is better and why!), but we really did get in an awful lot in one afternoon. We even heard a one-man accordian show while we snacked under a large tent mid-afternoon. Miss Mouse leaned over at one point and commented to me, "This one is a polka.". Good girl!

It really was a fun day, a memory I will tuck away for the ages, and one I hope the girls will, too. It did, though, leave me missing my Grandpa Don, being alive, and my Grandma ,being the way I remember, more than usual this week. Wouldn't it be something to be able to have our own grandparents at the ages where we remember them as children at the same time as having children of our own? *Sigh*. Rather than focus on the impossible, I suppose, I talked to the girls both about our own trip to the fair and about how one particular set of their great-grandparents enjoyed being with their Auntie Laura and their Mommy at the fair so much so many years ago. It probably really doesn't get better than being able to create our own memories and to pass on the ones from my past at the same time!