four fillies farm

Samantha got a chance to do more horseback riding lessons, so she is at the farm all this week taking lessons from 9 to 3. Long day for her. I am pretty sure she is the youngest there by a year, but she is doing fine. She rides a beautiful pony, Rosalita, a black pony of the Americas. She got to go on a trail ride today. I broke down and bought her own helmet and some riding pants that really fit. She looks great in them! Yes, I can hear you all now. I will try to get pictures posted as soon as I take some. I just can't manage a camera and Joshua at the same time very easily, so I'll ask one of the girls to take it for me.

Joshua and I drop Sam off in the morning, and I wake him up from his afternoon nap to pick up Sam at 3. Joshua loves seeing the chickens, the cat, the dog and the bunnies. He yells "cluck, cluck" at the chickens, "meow" at the cat and just pets the bunnies. He is very gentle with all of them. He accidentally hit the cat when he was playing with a piece of straw and was horrified that the cat left. He has been extra sweet to it ever since. He likes the horses too, calls them "neigh neighs" but he doesn't want to touch one. That's just fine. I like to see sensible caution in a little one.

He had a birthday romp this morning with Benjy, Jasper and Heath, Dara and Jamie. It was a boy fest! Everyone ate tons of grapes and cheese and ran around with the dogs. Thank goodness it didn't rain much so we could take the energy outside for a bit. It was a bit crazy, but Joshua was thrilled. And nice and tired for his nap. Yay!

Knee update

Samantha had her update with the orthopaedist this morning. Dr. said her knee looks great. He isn't sure what is wrong, but if the Naproxin is working, keep using it, just titer it down to as low a dose as possible. He feels very strongly that whatever she does have is benign in nature and she is very likely to grow out of it, given that we have already been able to lower her dose of pain meds as she is getting bigger. That is a good sign.

Samantha had a great time at Drumlin Farm Camp run by the Mass Audubon Society. She got to milk cows, make ice cream from the milk, win the tallest weed prize and gather eggs from under the chickens and make yummy cookies from the eggs. She came home covered from head to toe in what I hoped was just mud and a big smile on her face. In addition to her two cats and two dogs, she now also very much wants a kitten, a puppy and a chicken, a hen chicken. Good luck with Daddy on that one. At least she isn't asking for a pony, although that is probably only a matter of time. She seemed thoughtful about a snake too. She said the corn snake she got to hold (all three feet of it) was very beautiful and soft.

Ella's birthday was yesterday. We took her to the Fells to run around in the woods and picnic with us on the flat rock. Sam ran right with her through the woods and only fell once. Some good clean blood to take care of the dirt and she was good to go. Ella got a hamburger from Burger King (plain) as a birthday treat, and was generally very happy. After she came back from running with Chris, she laid down on the patio outside. Joshua laid down right on top of her and sighed in happiness. Ella didn't move a muscle. Josh has such good doggies for friends.

Joshua's language is exploding. He says all kinds of words now. All gone, Okay, elephant, all done, go away, mine, me done, me eating, nap nap. And more. If you say it, he will repeat it. Sit unfortunately is still coming out as Sh -it. He also skips the l and r in blueberries which earns him some odd looks from strangers. Of course blueberries are his favorite food, so he is apt to ask for them at any time.

We picked blueberries a couple of weeks ago and Josh ate whatever we picked for him. I tried to show him how to pick his own, but he insisted on eating only what we picked. Not a bad safety feature, I'm thinking.

Sam's cousin, Dylan, came to visit last week. It rained most of the time. Sam and Dylan and Josh played with the train set and built cities out of the blocks. Sam didn't ask for tv once. She and Dylan fought about everything, wouldn't sit apart and had to sleep together too. They are like two peas in a pod. They even look alike. Sam is really impressed that Dylan can tie his own shoes, and she hopes to do her own laces soon. We did go to the Aquarium and petted sharks and rays and looked at penguins and sharks. There was a diver in the great tank. I accidentally took a detour through the airport on the way to the Aquarium, which made Dylan very happy. Lots of airplanes and lots of tunnels. I had to take 93 South from the airport and then take 93 north once I was in the tunnels to get from the airport to the Aquarium. I must be a true Boston driver, because at the time this just seemed the obvious thing to do.

All for now. I'll try to update with shorter notes more often instead of such long posts infrequently.

Morning and Asleep

Okay, so I have been complaining for a while now that we have two early bird children, and I am not an early bird. So, for whatever reason, this morning we have switched. I want to pick blueberries. Samantha, wants to pick blueberries. If Joshua could talk and understood what I meant by picking blueberries, he would *really* want to pick blueberries. I woke up at 6 am and was unable to get to sleep. I got up, put in a load of laundry, cleaned the kitchen, made pancakes, took a shower, all the while expecting to at least hear from our really early riser, Samantha. Nope, not a peep, nor any galumphing elephant footsteps. Not a peep out of Joshua, even when I walked in and gazed fondly at his little tuchas raised in the air while he sleeps in a position I find unfathomable. Maybe Sam stayed up really late reading her Rainbow fairy book? As a side note, did I mention that there isn't anything Sam can't read now? I haven't seen her stumble over any word as she reads lately. So, do I wake them now and get on our way before it gets too hot to comfortably pick the little blue wonders, or do I let them sleep? There is a reason for the saying, "let sleeping babies lie" or was it dogs? Same for either, frankly. You pay for your hubris either way. I guess the Storyland trip really did wear them out. Who knew? After a full day at Storyland and a half hour nap from Joshua, they stay awake the whole ride home, happily watching Cinderella. It was really funny to hear Joshua screaming a gutteral, "go away" to the cat, Lucifer. At first he did a really nice "meow" whenever Lucifer showed up, but Josh quickly caught on that Lucifer is not a nice cat and the meows got meaner sounding, and then he switched to an outright, go away! yell. Kept me awake on the three hour ride home, which was actually really helpful to me. We got in at 10:00pm, both children wide awake. Everyone was out by 11pm.

Wish me luck. I am about to wake the sleeping dragons.