Saturday, February 18, 2012

17 Months Old & A Trip to the Farm

     Can you believe our precious child is already 17 months old???  One more month will make him a YEAR AND A HALF old!  Good grief!  Let's not rush things.  Back to this month...
     I'm happy to announce that we are FINALLY paci-free!  It was a slow, gradual movement, but it actually wasn't as bad as I anticipated.  We cut the end of it off and he pretty much hated it after a week.  One of the last times he had it, he threw it at me in anger, so rather than pick it up, I just left it.  He had a few mornings of waking up crying TOOOO EARLY, but we're pretty much back into a normal sleep routine now of going to bed by 8pm and getting up between 7:30-8am each morning.  It varies whether he asks for "Mama" or "Dada" when he wakes.  But as soon as we go to the window to recite Psalm 118:24 and look outside, he always notices whether Mark's truck is gone or not and then asks, "Dada?"
     Now, even though he's 17 months, he apparently thinks he's already 2 because he's throwing some "terrible twos" fits nowadays.  The child is no-doubt strong willed (unfortunately, like his mama) and when he doesn't get his way he is loud, vocal, and aggressive in sharing his feelings.  We are continuing to use consistent discipline to shape and mold his spirit (not break it).
     He still has an infatuation with balls, trucks, and animals.  Yesterday was probably one of his most exciting days yet.  Whitney is a former co-worker of mine and she has a little boy close to Marcus' age.  We had free tickets to the Biltmore House, but since we'd both been before, we decided to use the tickets to take the boys to the farm that they have on the grounds.
     Upon arrival, the sign said they didn't open until an hour later than the website, so we took our lunches & ate up at the creamery, outside on the patio.  The weather was soooo nice!  All of us had on light jackets, but as it warmed up, we didn't even need that.  The boys played with wagons and got to see a real tractor.  They stood right beside it and weren't as tall as the back tires.  Marcus kept going back to it, even when we had all moved on.
     Once inside the fences of the farm, there was ALL KINDS of fun!  Marcus got to pet and eventually held a chicken.  I was so surprised at a)how brave he was! and b) that the chicken even let him hold him.  You'll see in one picture below that he had it by one leg and it was flapping for dear life.  He saw sheep, goats, a donkey, ducks, geese, a rather large rabbit, NUMEROUS types of chickens, and two gigantic horses.  We stayed a good hour and left right before a bus full of local children came rolling in.
     On the way home, Marcus was asleep within five minutes and he was OUT!  Holden was in the back seat with him, talking up a storm, but Marcus was already snoring. Once home, I put him in his crib and he stayed asleep for another 2 hours.  He wore himself out! :)
Looking at the chickens - they were NOISY!


Posing for a picture in the wagon.

The farm workers were very friendly and caught a chicken and rooster for the boys to pet. 

Getting brave with the chicken.
He picked it up!
He got a hold on this chicken's leg & it was flapping half to death.
Sweet boy
Looking at the sheep


He also got up enough courage to touch this big goat.

Laughing about it as he ran away.

Not supposed to be in the goat feeder...

Our two little farmers.

Sweet baby boy and his mama - in front of the sheep
     I hope you enjoy the pictures!  Whitney was gracious enough to share these with me since we're still camera free...but that day is coming soon (I hope).

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