farm

cashel loves farms. well, he loves animals. especially horses, oh, and alpacas, and donkeys, and llamas, and oxen....the list goes on and on. he is too much fun. all i have to do to entertain the boy is go to the library and get books with pictures of animals. he doesn't get much screen time but there are times when i've googled "horses" and entertained him with pictures of horses then we get to slide shows of farm animals. he often wakes up in the morning and says "animal" or "horse." not too long ago we went to a farm about 45 minutes away from us called underwood family farms. it's a divine place for kids and adults alike. they have it set up with a petting farm, an animal show, and animals (cows, alpacas, donkeys, sheep,etc.) behind fences with pvc pipes stationed so you can feed the animals carrots. cashel loves it...although once the animals move he doesn't love it so much. it's one thing to look at them in books an another to see one actually move 10 feet from you! he's getting better though. for the adults, besides all this $5.00 entertainment for your kids there is a farmers market in the front or you can grab a little wagon and pick your own from their farm! we were there when strawberries were in season and, as you can see below, cashel loved fresh strawberries! we loved the farm so much we went two saturdays in a row and i'm sure we'll be back soon!


oh...almost forgot. after cashel's visit to the farm, asking him "cashel, where are we going?" turned into him automatically responding "farm" to wherever we were going. "cashel, where are we going?" "farm" (we were going to daycare). "cashel, where are we going?" "farm" (we were going to target). "cashel, where are we going?" "farm" (we were going to nana's), etc. it took a week to get him to say "beach" (we were headed to kiawah, sc, that next weekend) only after saying farm....he would say "farm...beach." even here at the beach we walk down the beach and he says "horse, cow, etc" and he's totally into old mcdonald or, as he calls it, "eieio"

being a boy

it's been remarked to me (is that grammatically correct?), lately, that boys are so much more challenging than girls. i guess that depends on how you define "challenging." if challenging means ready to go from sun up to sun down, running, jumping, climbing with no fear, chattering up a storm, getting as dirty as possible, going through at least two outfits a day, picking up all rocks in your path, getting mad when we won't let you watch basketball, yelling "no" at other kids trying to share the huge stairs of the jungle gym, sitting for half a minute for a story but for at least twenty to look at picture books of animals, attempting to escape from my arms full of kid and groceries, not realizing that streets are dangerous but being lucky to have a mama and daddy who prevent you from actually making it that far, getting super excited with eyes as big as saucers every time you see or hear a truck or a bus, running right into the room at daycare that has the snake forcing your mama who hates, hates, hates (and that word is not strong enough) snakes to run after you while keeping her back to the snake so she doesn't have to see it...

...all while stopping from time to time to give unsolicited hugs and kisses, to make faces at each other at dinner or any ole' time, to sit together having a quite moment while sharing an apple, to sit on the patio or on the couch together looking for birds, to sing "three little monkeys" or "the bear went over the mountain" together, to play steam roller on the bed, to give zerberts on each others bellies, to say "please" and "thank you" and "i love you"....

...then bring on little boys....especially this little boy...

i hope you...

...have a best friend like me...

let me introduce April.

she's awesome. we met almost 6 years ago. i know, right? it's only been 6 years!? i had been teaching at teaneck high school in northern new jersey (yes, there is a difference between northern and southern and central new jersey) and a teacher, at the end of my first year said to me, Robin - there is another teacher from the south joining us next school year. so i did what any respectable, lonely for southern comfort woman would do, stalked her my first year, heck, my first day, at teaneck. i found her at the opening day breakfast and said, hey...i heard you're from the south- she said, yes...from gastonia (and something about also having lived half of her life in south carolina also, which i ignorned) i said, my mom's from gastonia! she said, really? have you heard of tony's ice cream? I said, heard of it? my mom used to work for tony!

and....

a friendship was born!

i gotta tell ya...it's hard making friends as you get older! i mean, like april, i don't have many friends from high school. we just kind of went our separate ways.

somehow april and i 'get' each other. it's great. i love having a friend who i've only known for 6 years who i feel like i've known a life-time. we love each other through the good and the bad. last year she and jason were in cahoots (like that, do ya?) and totally surprised me with a visit from april in july! it was great. this year wasn't a surprise but she came out to visit for a whole week. it was great. i talk to her many times a week and miss her daily.

i wish we lived in the same town.

except...

as much as i love you april....

here....

is why...

you won't be babysitting anytime soon....



love you with all my heart!