Starts with Baseball, Ends with Alpaca

Tuesday had two things on the agenda: Halloween Party with the new Play-Date group we joined in the neighborhood (this was actually only our second showing, but we both seem to enjoy it) -AND- canning chili sauce with Mama Suite (my Mom.)

So I got Holden (just shy of 21 months these days) dressed in his costume:

The baseball theme seemed like a good option since each day when I ask him what he wants to wear he says: "Bay-Ball!" Which, besides "Mom," & "Dad" is one of the few words he really tries to say (the rest of his communication consists of about 10 ASL signs and then mostly animal sounds and roars... yeah, we're proud.)

Here's Holden with the new love of his life: "Hot Courtney." Apparently Holden takes after his father and loves older women. He wouldn't leaver her alone; even though she has two of her own darling children to look after. I met "Hot Courtney" through church. I know she has a last name, but when I'm talking to Danny, I always just say "Hot Courtney" and he knows who I'm talking about... yes, she's a looker (and she's got a great personality so DOUBLE WHAMMY!)

Hot Courtney's Darling Children:

(Blonde) WonderWoman and Superman (the early years)

At the Party, Holden found his way onto the stage.

I was proud of him for sitting on the edge and not jumping/falling off.

Here he is being all angelic for Storytime at the party. (Proud Sigh).

Actually he kept grabbing all the kid's toes and shoes...

I thought it was pretty awesome. They seemed ok with it, so I didn't interfere.

And "PARADE TIME!" Which was actually just the kids walking around the gym in a line... but Holden didn't really grasp the "line" part.

So he just marched to his own beat... if you know what I mean.

After a craft, a sugar cookie, nearly taking a kid's head off with his baseball bat and MANY wipeouts on the gym floor (but like Johnson's Shampoo - no tears! huzzah!); it was time to hook up with Mama Suite for naptime and canning.

Except, WE WENT TO GARDNER VILLAGE INSTEAD!!!!

We are so crazy like that. I mean, one minute we're suppose to be elbows deep in tomatoes and onions, and then BAMN, we go ROGUE like Palin and hit up craziness homemaker style. What up?

But seriously, my Mom was meeting my Dad for a work-thing; and so we got invited and joined in for lunch. Holden LOVED looking at the decorations and was especially interested in the cats. The picture below is of witches playing baseball. Even with frozen hands and a nose that looked like a strawberry, he didn't want to wave goodbye.

But even more intriguing? The ponies... Seriously? $3 for a 3-minute ride? That's like a dollar a minute! Yeah, we did it twice. I was especially stoked I wore my new fuzzy creamish boots to walk through all the mud and horse poop, because flip flops would've been down right disgusting.

Such a big boy! He looks kind of freaked out in these pictures, but he kept pointing saying "Nayne!" (meaning "neigh") which is Holden-speak for "Horses Mom! I love horses! More horses! Acknowledge the horse mom!"

And the pony isn't actually moving, I just moved back to take a picture.

Why can't I just smile like a normal person for pictures?

So after the pony ride/s we hit up the petting zoo. I was kind of expecting it to be like the fair where you reach through the stables and fences and can touch the animals if they walk towards you.. oh, not here. Holden just roamed around, petting, touching, pointing, mooing, nayne-ing, oinking and baa-ing to his heart's content.

Obviously neither the goats, nor my son, have personal space issues.

Here he is trying to ride an Emu. I ran interference successfully. Such was not the case when he tried to mount a goat that was seated; he took off before Holden could begin his 'mutton busting' career; and Little Bits tumbled backwards. Luckily, no one was hurt; they didn't kick us out and PETA wasn't protesting.

Speaking of PETA: I'm not entirely sure how I feel about "petting zoos" or "zoos" in general. (Leave it to me to turn a day of activity post into something political, eh?)

Most of the time zoo's freak me out -- because so often the animals seem sedated and unhappy. I've also been reading a lot of Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver lately, so my senses have become acutely aware about the misconnect of our pastoral view of the family farm and the CAFO's where most of our cow & chickens come from. That said, the animals here roamed about (with a larger pasture area behind them) and certainly didn't seem sedated (I saw one goat eat another's skin not a yard from my son.) But they were friendly to us. They seemed to be loved by the caretaker in charge of them -- she called them each by name, and even chatted them up a bit.

I guess I'll just have to withhold judgement about it or wait to make any serious decisions until I learn a little more. In the meantime, it sure was nice to just let Holden be a kid for the day...poop on our shoes and all.