Little Helper

There has been a lot of fixing going on around home recently. From the dryer needing a new belt to light switches buzzing and a need for a new outlet, Josh, my dad and their power tools have been busy. Luca learned the word "fix" and now uses it when he sees Josh with a screwdriver. So, because Luca was so blessed/spoiled at Christmas, our current toy storage wasn't cutting it anymore. We bought a cube storage and some baskets and Luca was kind enough to help...

by running off with the screwdriver. That's the best kind of help, right? But he did actually lend a hand, putting in the dowels and hammering them in. And he steadied the screwdriver while Josh turned it. My little handy-man in training!

Cheese!

Vacation

I should start by saying this is probably going to be super image heavy... sorry.

I was so nervous/excited about our vacation. It would be my first time traveling out of the country (not counting Canada), there were layovers both ways, I'm not a huge fan of flying, wasn't sure how little one would do with the eating and sleeping being different, not to mention doing a lot more in a week than we normally do. But it was going to be a whole week in the sun and on beaches and expected to be in the 80's. Plus there was a heat index. I forgot when it got warm enough there was a heat index.

So we started off at 5am to make it to the airport. We were all enormously benefited by the fact that Dad does so much traveling for work that we all got Premiere service from the airline, not waiting in long lines, several upgrades, good stuff. And Luca seemed mostly entertained by the adventure and did well waiting.

Reading with Dad on the plane

The first two flights were full (the first one kept saying that people needed to put things under their seat instead of in the overhead because if any more bags had to go under the plane people would have to get off due to weight restrictions. Yikes). But kid was happy bouncing between Josh and I and my parents in the row in front of us.

And during our hour layover he found the moving walkway...

One... two... three... jump! Around and around and around.

On the second flight we actually got him to sleep. And he was nice enough to cuddle in such a way that he wasn't bothering the other guy in the row and I got to play my game boy. =)

We made it to the Cayman Airport relatively on time, found the car rental place, managed to shove 2 scuba bags, 6 suitcases and 4 back pack carry-ons plus the 7 of us all in the car and headed to the resort. They drive on the other side of the road and there are a total of 7 (I think) stop lights on the island, the rest are round abouts. Dad asked us to every once in a while remind him to be on the left side of the road. When we got to the place it was too dark to see anything very well, so a quick trip to the grocery and some unpacking rounded out the day.

The middle of the first floor was our room. So very very close to the beach. Amazing.

During the week we were there Dad and Alan dove at least twice a day and we spent so much time on the beach. Luca would walk down to it and just sit down on the edge of the water and play. I thought to bring a bucket and shovel, Mom found a volleyball and a little angry bird guy on the beach, and he had a blast.

We also managed to see some of the sights and do a little shopping. We went to Georgetown which is where the cruise ships come to port so there were A Lot of jewelry stores. Tiny bit of history there too. They have lizard statues like Chicago had cows and KC had bears several years ago. We of course took a picture with it.

Thank you robopod for the group picture =)

One of the highlights for everyone was swimming with the Sting Rays. All of the pictures of that are on the underwater cameras, though, so I don't have any to put up. But it was awesome. They are technically wild in that they are free to leave the sand bar, but they know that people come to feed them so they don't usually stay gone for long. There are rules that you can only be on the sand bar for an hour and you can only bring a pound of food, so the rays have learned and travel from boat to boat to boat, looking for something to eat. Local lore says that if you kiss one you get seven years of good luck. I totally kissed one and Luca gave one a high five. That's got to be good for a least a couple years of good luck. =)

We also went to a turtle wildlife encounter where we got to pick up and hold turtles and watch them get fed (they look just like Hungry Hippos) and Luca totally chased a lizard.

A gorgeous beach where Alex and Josh snorkeled and Luca slept in a tent on the beach.

I mean, beautiful...

A petting zoo/Pirate cave. They had bunnies and goats and chickens and lizards and birds and pigs and peacocks and all sorts of random animals. Luca loved the bunnies best. The guy had coins and a cannonball that were found in the cave, and Mom and Josh went back into the cave with flashlights and saw bats. I was, of course, safely above ground instead.

The boys went kayaking in the water around the resort

The blowholes and Lovers' Wall

I think Josh took this. Incredible timing!

We went to Hell. Seriously. It's a city there.

Looking at the Hell rocks

Saw Santa at the mall and played in the fountains

The boys also went on a brewery tour and to a car museum, naturally. ;)

I'm also sure you're wondering if all the time spent on the quiet book was well spent. It was! He played with the book a couple times on the plane and most every evening in the condo. Yay!

Bananas in the fish bowl, eh?

Our last day we only had time to eat breakfast and pack everything up. We were of course bummed to be leaving, it was so beautiful! And it didn't help knowing we were going back to temperatures in the teens...

We all had a wonderful time!

Bye Caymans!

21 months

This is a hard one to write. I feel like the major developmental milestones are further apart now, so there's not a long list of changes each month anymore. That being said, here's some new stuff.

We tried to see Santa a week ago. What I mean to say is that we went to see Santa, I held Luca while he looked at Santa and smiled at Santa, and as soon as I moved him lapward, he started screaming. But Santa was very nice and gave him a little stuffed penguin. Once I was again holding him Luca (through tears) told him bye. Now he picks up that penguin and says "ho ho ho." At first I thought he thought that's what penguins say, but if you ask him he does a version of that tickle laugh that penguins do, so he just remembers it was from Santa.
When he was last weighed he came in at 24 lbs, been hovering around the 10-12 percentile for a while, I think.

Cheesing, eating lunch with an ice cream scoop

He has started putting together two word phrases, "up mama," "bath daddad," "more crack." (He calls crackers "crack" and obviously I'm not correcting him.) He is using "real" words a lot more and babbling a lot less. Which is frustrating for me because I know he's trying to tell me something, he'll stare at me and repeat the same word again and again, but I have no idea what he's saying.
He loves "Itsy bitsy Spider" but always starts at "down came the rain" and mostly just does that one line a lot. And he's so sweet, we rock for a little bit before he goes to sleep, and sometimes I sing and sometimes I don't. If I'm not singing and Luca wants me to he starts singing while his sweet little head is laying on my shoulder. When I get to the end of a song and stop, if he wants and encore he'll start singing again. I just love it. Currently the rotation is Silent Night, Away in a Manger, and of course The Gambler by fun.
My mom found a keyboard in the basement that my Grandpa gave us years and years ago and thought Luca might enjoy it. Oh my goodness, we're getting this kid piano lessons as soon as it's appropriate. He spreads his hands out on the keys and uses his thumb and pinky at the same time and alternating and gets the black keys too and just looks like he knows what he's doing. Plus sometimes he sings while he plays.

We are very excited for Christmas, I have no idea what Luca is going to do. We opened a gift from his god parents early, and he took the present to the rug, sat down and opened it, then put the tissue paper back in the now empty bag and put it back under the tree. He hasn't bothered any of the other presents under the tree. When we tell him he can keep opening he's either going to get overwhelmed or go crazy and start opening everyone elses. We'll see!

As an aside, Luca is currently in the bath. We have a basket full of those foam letters that stick to the sides of the bathtub when they're wet. Luca picked out three letters, W, T and F. Ha.

Luca's new chair

When kid is in the high chair he has these super awesome annoying habits of kicking the foot rest hard, rocking front and back so violently that the whole chair inches forward, and pushing off our our leg while we were sitting so that he was far away from the table, among other wonderful things. So it was decided he needed a booster. I naturally did way more research than the average person, and settled on one that connected to the table instead of to a chair. Figured since we don't have a lot of space around the table, and it's kind of long and skinny, I didn't really want to be at the opposite end of the table as Josh. It would feel a little like that meal in Beauty and the Beast. So one that connects to the table could be put in the corner same as where we pulled the high chair up. Hopefully, it would work.

While we tried to take a cousins picture and my kid was the only one crying and refusing to smile, it was suggested that I leave and see if that helps. Gave me an opportunity to go buy the chair, and naturally I got a text after about 10 minutes saying they were done and he was busting a gut through most of the pictures and out of the dozen pictures taken only one or two didn't turn out. What did I learn from this? No more will I take him to get his pictures taken, since I apparently bring out the diva in him.

ANYWAY

I wanted to test the chair and make sure it was installed right and wouldn't fold up under his weight or anything. But kid was sleeping. So Jude volunteered.

Doesn't it look like he's happy to help? But it worked just like it was meant to. We got to test it at dinner and it worked like a charm! He swings his feet like you can't help but do while you're waiting for a roller coaster to start, but there's nothing to kick against! Win Win.

Of course the first meal we ate Jude wandered aimlessly under the table, very confused about where the food was going to drop from and where he needed to be to get to it first. Poor puppy.

Finished Book!

This is very exciting to me for several reasons. One, it's a craft project that was actually finished. Unless I'm making something as a gift, I don't often finish projects. My guest bedroom is a graveyard of projects that have a couple hours work into them. So Yay for finishing something! Second, it's amazing because it just is. Really. Let me show you.

There's a cover page but that's not the exciting stuff. It does explain that it's a book of seasons, though, so I'll just tell you that part. So the first spread is Spring. Because I say the seasons "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter." So does Alex. Josh says "Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall." So does my mom. There was a great deal of discussion about what order to put the pages in.

Anyway, Spring. On the left is a garden with carrots, potatoes and lettuce. They all are in little pockets and can be taken out to put in the basket on the right hand page. The watering can isn't attached so can be used to water the garden and the plant on the right page. When not in use, it hangs on the little hook you can see behind it. The plant is fun because it grows! If you pull the plant it comes out of the pot until it has three levels of leaves. And then you can pull the button at the bottom of the pot and the plant shrinks until just the top little bunch of leaves is visible. Still trying to teach Luca it only goes so far in either direction.

On to Summer!

These have six different flips flops spread across the beach, and the pail on the right side holds the mates. They all have a little magnet in them so you can match the pairs. Or just put a couple together, if that's more fun. Which it sometimes is.

Time for Fall!

On the left side is a basket with a bunch of leaves and acorns that can go in and out of the basket. We thought about trying to make a rake or something, but have you ever tried to make a rake out of felt? It's tricky to make it look like something other than a very spaced out broom. So, no rake. On the right page Luca learns early to root for the KC Chiefs. Very exciting, the goal post folds down flat but also will stand upright so you can paper football like flick the ball between the uprights. That will be more of an in the condo game than an on the plane game.

Finally, Winter

On the left side is an adorable little penguin who is on a ribbon like the plant on the Spring page so he can go in his igloo or hang out with the seal by the pond. Seriously, that penguin is super cute. On the left page is a build your own snowman. You can make two, or a big tall leaning one, or whatever you little heart desires. And the pieces all hide in the snowbank when they're not being used.

The back cover has a pocket on it for any loose pieces if we don't have time to put them on the page they belong. I am so immensely proud of this book! AAAAANNNDDDDD, we are almost done with another one! It's looking like by the time all is said and done there will be three books. I hope Luca enjoys playing with them as much as Mom and I enjoyed making them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Shocker, I made cookies for Thanksgiving! Got to use something new to do them too: food mist. It was a little weird spray painting the cookies, but it really had a cool effect.

Used sprinkles on a cookie for the first time too. Josh thinks it looks like the acorns have little afros. I wanted to use just brown sanding sugar but couldn't find any anywhere. And I looked lots of places. But every store had the chocolate jimmies. Still cute =)

This year we are all thankful for the stuff we are lucky enough to take for granted: our health, housing, employment, all that stuff. We are happy to spend the holiday with lots of family, many that we haven't seen since the last holiday season. I am thankful that Mother Nature has so far been holding off on the freezing temps and snow. Mostly, though, I am thankful that Josh doesn't have a leg to stand on anymore when it comes to his ban on Christmas music, lights, and trees in and on our house! ;) Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a delicious leaf pile!

Recently...

Josh and I had Chinese the other night, and I always use chopsticks to eat mine. While we were getting dinner ready Luca was driving me crazy, so I gave him a pair to play with. And then he wanted to bring them to the table. Since they're an eating utensil (that I was going to be using) it didn't seem right to tell him no. Good thing too, he showed us he's a pro! That's a corn kernel wedged in between those chopsticks. Now he's ready to travel with Grandpa =)

One time (One Time!) I stuck a clip we use to close chip bags onto Luca's shirt. One time. Now he likes to take them and try to put them on himself. On this particular day we had a lot of clips not holding onto anything, so Luca gave them a purpose.

We have a bunny that has been sitting most all day in the same spot for about a week. You can see him from the window over the kitchen sink and from Luca's bedroom window. He's there when we're washing up after breakfast, he's giving himself a bath around lunch time, and I've never seen him leave, so I have no idea how long into the dark he stays. Luca learned the word "bunny" because of him. Josh named him Reginald. He doesn't even move when Jude goes outside. Reggie has learned that Jude is way more interested on the dogs that might be on the other side of the fence than the bunny on his side. So he just stays still until Jude leaves. Then he goes back to staying still... Luca asks to check on him several times a day.

And, in super duper exciting news, mom and I are almost done with a quiet book! Pictures to follow soon!

20 months

When I decided to do these little monthly updates, I thought "Won't it be cool to look back and see how much has changed in a month!?" I still think that, but I also seem to think more frequently, "Seriously? It's been another month already? Didn't I just do the update?" I mean, is there a stronger adage than Time Flies? Cause that's the one I'm looking for.

In the last month, Luca has started morphing into a Myna bird. At unexpected times. One day we'll sing a belly button song, he pokes my belly button, his belly button, Josh's belly button, tries to find Jude's belly button. Then a week later he walks up to me and out of nowhere pats his tummy and says "button." And then he won't say it again. So crazy. So, his list of words has grown enormously, but his list of repeated words is still normal sized.
Funny story, we are apparently not teaching Luca the words for concrete things, like bed, chair, bowl, sofa, bike, whatever. We are instead teaching him abstract words like down, many, and full. So he likes his new words but has no idea what they mean. He just comes over to you, says "up" (he knows that one), then when you're holding him points in every which direction saying "down." Absolutely no idea what he wants, because it sure isn't down.
Also, he reads =) For a long time he has been careful in selecting books. He'll pull one off the shelf, look at the cover, and then either bring it to us or pick a new one. And he has favorite pages in the book that once we get to, the book is over. I haven't read past the "ALL THE HIPPOS GO BERSERK!" page in ages. Luckily, he's loved that book forever and so I don't need the pages to finish the book, I just recite them while he picks a new one. But so he picks the book he loves, and brings it to us doing something from the book. We have a book that's a song, and he brings it while singing "ooooooohhhhhh." Well we also have a Star Trek opposites book and he brought it over open to the page with the tribbles on it (One. Many.) while saying "Many." Had no idea he knew the word much less the page. So he reads. Also he knows "Full" in that book. You point to the page, he says the word. I have a call in to see the minimum age of Mensa membership.
He's finally calling people in pictures by their name instead of calling everyone "Alex." When I asked him to say "Kimmer" he said "cool." I said close enough =)
We tried skipping the morning nap for a week, figured he was probably old enough and it would let me get more stuff done and go places and such. What a terrible decision. I figured by a week he would have learned to lengthen his afternoon nap. He shortened it. We went from going on 3-4 hours of naps during the day to about one, one and a half. Terrible decision. We're back to morning and afternoon napping.
He loves loves loves playing with Jude and getting toys for him. And taking toys from him. Yesterday while Jude was chewing on a toy Luca brought him another one. When Jude wouldn't take it, Luca tried to open his mouth for him. But Luca is good(ish) about throwing the toy and chasing him to get it back and then throwing it again. And oh my goodness he finds the whole thing hysterical. In what I'm sure is unrelated news, Jude sometimes goes upstairs to nap under our bed instead of on the sofa like usual.
We are very excited about the holidays coming up: Thanksgiving, Friendsgivingmas, vacation and Christmas. It's gonna be great!

And obligatory Luca picture He just this last week found my mom's pots and pans. I assume it's because he has so much drummer blood in him, but he figured out that two lids is basically the same as cymbals. He's cute. And, I think it needs to be said, he does NOT want a drum set for Christmas. Unless the giver plans to keep it at their house. Pots and lids are plenty musical for us.

See Jude? He says "please don't give that kid anything louder..."

Playing in the leaves

Our two trees in the backyard had thrown down a fair number of leaves, so I thought it was time to rake them into a pile for Bug to play in. I haven't raked leaves in years. I know I never did at my parents house now, so it would have been before I was 13 when we moved. Really, ages ago. Wasn't sure I could remember how a rake worked. At first, he wanted nothing to do with the little leaf pile, but was happy to help rake.

Tines up, it was too hard the other way =)

Then he thought it was funny that I was throwing the leaves up and decided it would probably be okay to do that too.

Then he thought it was hilarious that I would stomp in the leaves and sit down in the middle of the pile. So he decided to do that too.

Even more funny was jumping in them, but since I had to help him do it, you'll have to imagine the little guys laughter. It was pretty awesome. By then his little nose was running and my hands were turning into icicles, so I told him if it was still light when Josh got home we could go back out. *Fingers crossed*

Halloween

To start our Halloween festivities we carved a pumpkin. I figured either Luca would have a ball playing in all the goop, or not want anything to do with it. Unfortunately, aside from a minute or two using the spoon to scrape the last little bit out of the pumpkin, it was the latter. Fortunately, neither Josh or I have carved a pumpkin in years, so we still had fun =) So Luca played in the basement and we created an absolute masterpiece!

Even though this was Luca's second Halloween, it was his first to dress up and celebrate. As shy as he is around strangers and as much as he dislikes new things, I didn't figure we'd actually go trick-or-treating. Especially since he probably wouldn't be able to eat much of anything he got. So we made plans to visit his grandparents and great grandparents and a couple of their neighbors. He was going to dress up as a skeleton, we had the costume for ages. And then the afternoon before Halloween I thought he should dress up as something that he would pick if he understood what was going on. That night I went out to buy him a black sweatshirt and hat, and judged all the people picking out costumes last minute until I remembered I was doing the exact same thing... Eventually found what I needed, made it the next day with help from my mom, and just in time, Luca got to dress up as Jude!

Happy Halloween!

Third Pumpkin Patch

The weather was just so pretty, and we hadn't been back to the pumpkin farm from last year, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to go! It was fun to see how much he'd grown since last year propping him up in the pumpkins and this year chasing him all over.

7 mo old Luca

19 mo old Luca hears an airplane

Last year we pushed Luca around in the stroller, he sat in with the pumpkins and straw, tried to eat everything that was within his arms reach, and that was about it.















This year he got to enjoy all the little houses they had, and the slides and climbing stuff and petting zoo and teepee and mud and everything. =)

Cookies!

I've been wanting to try some new cookie recipes recently, and picked two. Against all odds, both turned out and are good enough to go in my recipe box! I thought you might be looking for a new cookie too, but I tried to find the recipes online and couldn't. So, I'll post them.

I had to try this one because it sounded so strange, I figured it was going to be so new and awesome or a hot mess. And I lucked out and it was the first. The directions say to juice the orange and then finely chop the peel. I chose to zest the orange and then juice it. It also says 3 tsp powder, but 1T is 3 tsp... so I just used 1 T. Every time I make cookies I set the timer for half of the cookie time and then rotate the cookie sheet 180* and do the other half of the time. It's probably not always necessary, but the first time I did it the cookies turned out so well that I do it all the time now. Anyway, here's the cookies!

Orange-Peanut Butter Cookies
(From "The Cookie Book, ed Culinary Arts Institute, 1965)
1 Orange
1/2 C Shortening
3/4 C chunk-style peanut butter
1 C Sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 C sifted flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 package (6 oz.) butterscotch flavored pieces

Cut orange in half; extract juice (about 1/4 C). Grind peel or chop fine (about 1/2 C). Cream shortening, peanut butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs and extract until fluffy. Blend in orange peel. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with orange juice. Stir in butterscotch bits. Drop from teaspoon onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 350* F. 10-12 min. Makes 4 doz. cookies.


When I asked Josh what kind of cookie he might want, he said something with peppermint. So I went through my cook books and found these Mint Meltaways. I don't think I've ever made a cookie without eggs, it was a little odd to not feel bad about licking the beaters. ;) There are a bunch of variations on the basic recipe, and I plan on making them for Christmas so I'll try out some of the other ones too probably. These were meant to have green food coloring to tint the dough, and I forgot. So I rolled them in blue sprinkles instead, which is kind of the same thing. Ish. I also just realized I was supposed to use cake flour and I instead used regular flour. Oops. Next time I'll make them right...

Green Peppermint Meltaway Cookies
(From "Cooky Book" by Betty Crocker, 1963)
1 C butter
1/2 C sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tsp peppermint extract
2 1/4 Cake Flour
1/4 tsp salt

Heat oven to 400* (mod. hot). Mix butter, confectioners' sugar, and peppermint thoroughly. Measure flour by spooning into a cup and leveling off or by sifting. Stir flour and salt together; blend into shortening mixture. Add a few drops of green food coloring. Drop by teaspoonfuls on ungreased baking sheet. (Cookies do not spread.) Bake about 8 min., or until set but not brown. While warm, dip in confectioners' sugar. Cool. Makes 5 doz. cookies.

All in all, four new recipes so far this week, and all four have been good! A rare treat for me, to be sure. Still looking for some new cookies to make, we'll see what else I can find...

Pumpkin Patch Part Two

We got to try out another pumpkin farm and met Grammie, Poppie, Ryland, Great Grandma and Great Papa. This one was huge and had so much stuff to do! We rode on a train pulled by a tractor made up of a bunch of barrels painted to look like cows. Ours was named Cupcake and oh my goodness was it a bumpy ride. Good thing I didn't need to pee... I mean, really, bumpy. There was a sign warning pregnant people not to ride. It sort of reminded me of a wooden roller coaster. But, still fun. They also had "antique" tractors on a big loop to drive around.

Help from the Great Grandparents

There were animals to pet (including tiny piglets and emo llamas that looked like they could use a hair cut but whatever that's just how they express themselves). There was a jumpy inflated pillow thingy, pumpkins everywhere, water pumps, a corn bin and a giant hay pyramid to climb on. I may have also climbed on the hay pyramid, but it was probably only because there were "squishy" parts where the hay wasn't as dense and it was hard to walk on so Luca needed help. And it was Ry's idea to climb all the way to the top to slide down the slide, honest.

Luca got a pumpkin to take home, and a picture with his cousin. You can't hardly tell they're related, right? Right.

And Mother Nature waited until right when we were getting in the car to start raining. So thoughtful, she is. ;)

19 months

Another month already? Geez. Let's see, what's new...

He's adding new words regularly, including snack, off, bye, cra (for cracker), Bryce, Ry (his cousins), blue, uh-oh, bath, cook (for cookie), and go fast. "No" just recently made it into his vocab, but he doesn't usually say it to refuse something, rather just keeps repeating it while he's walking around or climbing the stairs or whatever. My favorite is when he turns his head away and says it very quietly. He is constantly jabbering, and there's theories circulating that we play "Learn Korean" tapes while he sleeps because his jabbering does not sound like English at all.
He puts his arms straight behind him turns them palms up and we fly around the house like airplanes making whooshing noises. When we're outside and he hears a plane engine he points up and looks for the airplane.
Jude is no longer safe anywhere because Luca can climb on the furniture. I even caught him the other day stepping on a toy to reach further back on the end table.
His eye teeth are coming in and he's chewing on everything.
We went and got a couple potty chairs a couple weeks ago because he will point to his diaper when he needs to go to the bathroom. Once, he actually used the chair. Mostly, he's terrified of them and refuses to sit on them. At his 18 month well-baby doctor's appointment his pediatrician made a point to say to not even bother thinking about potty training until he's two or even two and a half. I thought, maybe, since he tells me when he needs to, it could work. But until his little chair stops being so scary it's a huge no-go. Ah well. We don't push the issue.
He loves being outside and whenever I say I'm taking the dog out he starts patting his head (telling me he wants his hat on) so he can come outside too. And he doesn't want to come back inside. I had a chat with him about a week ago, explaining how much I hate the cold and that I will be happy to put a thousand layers on him and he can play outside as long as he wants, but that I will only be watching him from the relative warmth of the kitchen. We'll see how that goes...

Apparently, there is a time limit to videos I can upload to here. So, here is a super long video (broken into chunks) where I am annoyingly persistent in trying to get Luca to show off and he is sometimes obliging and sometimes crazy.

Pumpkin Farm

We decided to try a different pumpkin farm than last year and found a really good one! Free admission, cheap pumpkins/gourds/squash, and lots for Luca to do. All of their pumpkins are right at the front, and they had some Huge ones!

Kid patted them and laid his head on them and loved them and did not want to look at any of the other, smaller ones. He clearly preferred the ones he could have hollowed out and made a home in.

Go Duckies, Go!

Eventually we managed to tear him from them and wandered further back. There was a set of four water pumps on a recycling system so he had fun pumping water and sending the little rubber duckies swimming down the chute.

Baby cow thought Grandma was delicious!

 They had a baby cow and a couple piglets in a little fenced in area. Luca wasn't quite sure at first about any of them, and didn't ever really warm up to the cow. But the pigs were eating and sticking their tongues out to do it. So now when you ask him what a pig says he sticks his tongue in and out. It's funny, so I don't correct him (I make a lousy pig noise anyway)  ;) 




 
 Then they had a "Fun Barn" with a pyramid of hay bales and bins full of corn kernels for kids to play in. While he never strayed far from the door, he did enjoy being in it and throwing the kernels around.

 And going around to the back of the corn bin, we found a GIANT pig eating all the kernels kids had thrown out of the bin. Just going to town. So Luca, being the sweet little boy he is, tried to feed him =)  Oddly, the pig wasn't interested in Luca's little handful of corn... But seriously, that pig was huge. It clearly lived happily supplementing it's diet in the Fun Barn.


 

So, we grabbed some pumpkins on the way out. Some Luca sized ones, one big one that we will carve later (Stay Tuned, should be fun!) and a huge butternut squash for $2. Did I mention this place was super cheap? We'll be keeping this place in mind for next year, or later this month with his cousins!