Of goats and udders

Ellie and I spent today at a local farm that's set up as an amusement park for kids. She got to ride on a pony ("Cookie"), and that was such a big hit with her that we did it again only ten minutes later. The petting zoo was an even bigger hit. It was full of goats, and there were several young kid goats. One little black and white baby came right up to Ellie and wanted to snuggle with her, possibly because she was the only child in the petting zoo who wasn't trying to pick it up by the neck. She absolutely fell in love with it, and hugged and kissed it, while Mommy tried hard not to think about goat germs! She then proceeded to crack up all the staff of the petting zoo when she saw the back end of a nursing nanny goat with its udders hanging down, and announced loudly, "Mommy, that goat has a funny-looking bottom!"

Blue skies

We've had a week of cool, cloudy, blustery days but woke up this morning to sunshine and blue skies. I didn't realize how gloomy the weather had been, but when I first took Ellie outside, she started dancing around with excitement, saying, "Blue sky! Blue sky! So much beautiful blue sky!" I guess it's been a while since she's seen it, huh?

Ellie is so much more independent now that she's nearly four years old, and taking her out places can really be fun. Since the weather was nice today, I ventured to take her to the local arts and wine festival. No, not to sample the wine! This festival is an annual event, and always includes a carnival midway with rides and games. Ellie had a wonderful time, going on a handful of rides over and over again. She even went "fishing" for rubber ducks and won herself an inflatable pink baseball bat! After she'd had her fill of rides, we walked around and looked at all the booths, and ended up buying a small elephant carved out of cherry wood. We were having so much fun that we decided to stay at the festival for lunch, and had roasted sweet corn on the cob and fried zucchini and chicken kabobs. We're lucky that Ellie is a good eater, but even so, I decided against the fried calamari.

Of course, there are still some things that she doesn't do independently, which can lead to some interesting moments if both Jason and I are on call. On Saturday, I was at work, so Jason was home alone with Ellie but also taking calls for his own work. At one point, he was involved with a call, when of course nature called for his daughter. Luckily, Ellie can do everything in the bathroom by herself except wiping after a poop. This resulted in Jason saying, "Excuse me for a moment, I just have to help my daughter wipe her butt."