: ( The farm show is over : (

Well, we must say goodbye to another farm show.

I foresee this week being the week the children will identify as the marker of summer being over. I feel that way all ready - especially since the weather has been so cool this week and down right cold at night. We're having late September weather - this is not August weather.

I think I am going to be one of those mothers who does not want her kids to go back to school. Maybe it is my own selfish nature in that I really like having the freedom to do what I want whenever I want to without having to answer to a school schedule. But, I also like what the schedule of school does for us. It's a catch 22, right?

We had a great week at the farm show - I didn't have to go every night (yay!) and the children got to show the goats. Erik & Walker made tons of contacts in the goat tent and they all had a blast looking at the animals, riding rides on Friday, and of course, eating yummy food all week.

Erik took Walker & Maggie tonight for the last night and the big-rig truck pulls. Little Maggie May was excited to go. She asked me all day, "Daddy take me to truck pulls?" She was very worried he would not be back to pick her up. But they went, and judging by the time now, I'm guessing Erik just decided to gather up the goats and all our paraphernalia tonight instead of trying to get back up there tomorrow. I'm sure Walkie and Maggie are fast asleep in the truck - well, maybe not Walkie - he's probably "helping" everyone tear down their stuff and doing "work." I hope his work ethic lasts through his life - he's one heck of a worker for such a small fella'.

Time is going to go fast here at GGF - the Farm Show is over, we have stuff planned for every weekend now through the end of September. I am trying to plan a day for Walker & I to go "back to school" shopping and all that good stuff. Not that he needs much, I just thought it would be a fun thing to do. He really does love to shop. And his new love is short sleeve button down shirts - like Erik wears to work every day. They are hard to find. Hopefully, I'll find some on clearance now that summer is over and I can stock up for next year.

I don't even want to think about next summer and the fact that my first baby will be 5 in 5 months! Ugh - let's not talk about it!

Too cute to not blog right away

So Maggie has discovered Barbie dolls. Someone has passed along to us a case with a few Barbies in it as well as some great accessories. Maggie has taken an interest today in dressing and undressing them and having me put their shoes on them so they can, according to Maggie, Walk, walk, walk, walk.

I just put shoes (mismatched ones at that) and Maggie took the Barbie back - which, from this point we will refer to "Barbie" as "Girl" because that is what Maggie calls her as in, Here momma, dress girl for Maggie.

So, I hand her back girl and she looks at her and points to her chest and says, Beeahs, Momma. For those of you not familiar with this particular Schwalmism, Beeah is the word Walker made up as a two year old for breast. I don't know how he came up with it, but when I nursed Maggie, that is what he called them. And it stuck. It's not such a bad thing - when we are in public and my children are referring to that particular body part, no one knows what they are saying. Maggie is frequently known to shout Momma, Will wants beeah! in public when Will starts to cry.

So, Maggie all of a sudden starts looking at girl and points to her chest and says, Beeah, Momma. I casually say, Yes, Maggie.

Maggie then says, Lots of milk in girl beeahs, Momma? She then proceeds to go through the Barbie doll case to "find baby for Girl to feed".

How do you not laugh at that. And I guess with that, the protesters of Barbie dolls win their argument that Barbie is not a good role model for body image.

Ok, I gotta leave the room before I get sucked into playing Barbie anymore. Maggie is obsessed with removing Barbie's clothing and making me re-dress her.

Uh-oh - just heard, "Help me pease, Momma?" Barbie needs a new outfit!

Will is not having any more of this Beeah talk. He is embarrassed!

How Typical

So, yesterday morning, Erik says, Today is the bicycle races up at the Farm Show. I'll be back at 12:00 and we'll take Walker up to participate.

So I get everyone ready and we get the bike in the truck. We even invited our wonderful neighbor, Donna, and she came too. As usual, we were running a bit late, so Erik grabs Walker and says, We'll go register and we'll meet you over there.

As I'm walking toward the track, I'm thinking There really isn't a lot of people here. We get into the track and no one is there. Turns out, my husband read the date wrong and the bicycle race was Wednesday, and we missed it.

Typical.

We'll get them next year. I'll spend the winter training Walker and he'll ride his bike so fast he'll win all the awards.

Or, we'll take it easy, next year will roll around, we'll look at the calendar and decide the day of to participate in the event.

Whichever.

Check back tonight or tomorrow - we're heading up to the farm show later to "ride the rides!" This ought to be fun.

Spitting Image

Erik took the older of the children to the Farm Show tonight and I got to spend alone time with Will.

My first realization was that Will is approaching 10 months. 10 MONTHS!! What??? Where did the time go? Where is my baby going??? I am so sad!

I was watching him play and he was pushing a truck on the floor just like a big boy. He even made attempts at truck like noises. I started taking some pictures of him and he noticed and every so often, he would have this look on his face
I'm not looking at you, Momma! Go ahead and try to get me to look!

He knew I was taking his picture but wouldn't look at me! So smart!!

So many people tell me Will is the spitting image of Walker - Walker is so adorable, so it isn't the worst thing in the world to look like him. But, I pulled out some photos for a comparison. They are all about the same age.

First: Walker

He's about 11 months here, so a bit older than Will now.

Next, Maggie:When did Maggie look so much like a boy?? Why don't I remember that?? Was I so wrapped up in her that I didn't realize she looked like that? Oh, Maggie May, Momma is so sorry! Believe me though - you won't realize you are doing this to your child - it just happens. And I'll pay for your therapy. I promise.

There are similarities between Walker & Maggie, but nothing that would confuse the two.

Now Will from today:
How cute is he and how grown up does he look? I immediately put him in a white onesie - the universal piece of clothing to instantly "babify" an older infant - like Will. He immediately lost about 2 months from his age. Whew - I was scared there for a minute. Oh, but wait, the minute I snapped the last snap and let him down, he started crawling the steps. Stop it, Will! I said STOP IT! You are not allowed to grow up!

None of them listen to me!

And Walker & Will side by side:













I don't know - you decide. I think they look A LOT a like. Too much almost.

Like I said in a previous post. If these guys continue to grow like they are I will not be the only woman to have my heart broken by them.

I am foreseeing a future for them - one where folks ALWAYS confuse them for each other. Kind of like my last visit to my hometown last week - My sister, Katie & I were walking around the fair with our mom - we walked past a woman that I recognized but couldn't place right away - Kate was in front of me and I saw the woman mouth something to her, but Katie kept on walking. I then walked past and the woman said, "Hi Katie." Ok, so it wasn't the most polite thing to do, but A) I couldn't place where this woman would know me aka my sister from, and B) I never expect anyone to know me (or to really be honest, know anyone). I'm not really sure why - especially in my very small hometown, but I guess it has to do with perpetually being mis-identified as my mom or my sister. Of course, I don't think any of us look alike - but apparently I am the only person who thinks that because any time I am in my hometown area, I am confused for my mom or sister.

Anyway, I do imagine that Walker and Will are going to be confused for each other a lot as they grow up. I just hope they don't use it like twins do and pretend to be each other.

I also foresee a day when people will come up to me and tell me how handsome my boys are. Ugh - I can't take it!

And not to leave out Maggie - I know people will tell me how beautiful she is too. She already is. My little sass. The last two days, she's taken to randomly hugging me and saying, Love you too, Momma. How adorable is that?

I'm so blessed to have these precious, precious children. I thank God everyday for this joy. Thank him for me next time you talk to Him too.

Housekeeping

Just wanted to post a few little requests/notices to my extensive list of readers out there.

Some of you have been leaving comments - but are not registered users of the network - and are coming up as "anonymous" when you leave a comment. Can ya' do me a favor and leave me a clue as to who you are? Thanks. If ya' don't , I'm going to not allow the comment to post. Weedin' out weirdo's and all.

Also, if I post a small picture to the blog, you can click on it and the picture will enlarge. You can see it better that way.

Ok, now back to my housekeeping . . .

P.S. After Walker's cat in a bath tantrum last night he slept over 13 hours. Think he was tired??

Day 2 (and I didn't have to go!)

Today was an adventure and I didn't even make it up to the Farm Show!

Katie and her children stayed at our house last night. Partly just to visit and allow Chris & Walker to play, and partly because I asked Katie to assess my house for a re-design. (For those of you who don't know, Katie is an Interior Designer). Katie is going to work on some ideas for me, but while we were inside talking about what I was looking for in a design, the boys were up to no good!

Well, that's not entirely true - they were doing typical boy stuff - playing in the mud, chasing and capturing chickens - you know, fun stuff like that - and we were allowing to have their little boy freedom. Walker is pretty good about keeping his friends out of trouble and he knows what he is and isn't allowed to have and to touch around the farm.

We had just done the inevitable and jinxed the situation because in the midst of our talking, I said, "I wonder if I should go check on those boys." And as I said it, Chris blew in the door, casually saying, Well, Walker is crying. Katie asks him, Why Chris? I ran outside and Walker is limping toward the house screaming bloody murder
AHHH!! Momma!! I am bweeding! Insert more bawling and crying.

Me: Walker! What happened?
Walker: It's Christopher's fault!

We turn to Chris for details and in his most casual tone, Chris says,
Well, Aunt Jen, we were throwing rocks at the chicken coop house and we broke a window

Walker interjects: I told Chris not to but he did it.
Me: Walker, did you throw rocks too?
Walker: Yes, but I told Chris we should throw them at the barn, not the chicken coop!
Me: Ok, everyone in the house. We need to get cleaned up and look at that foot.
Walker: I don't want to be clean and I don't want you to touch my foot!

This particular dialogue went on for the length of time it took me to get Walker up the stairs. When I got him in the bathroom and he realized what I was doing, a whole other child emerged!

Have you ever seen a cat getting a bath? That was Walker as I tried to wahs his foot! He was twisting and turning and squirming. I get his foot washed, but had to lie him on the floor to look at his foot and eventually had to pin him on the floor and hold him down so I could check out the foot because he thought there might be glass in it.

I never found anything and I did finally manage to get him a bath but boy - I seriously would have rather bathed a cat!

Walker managed to get clean and we had to say goodbye to Katie, Chris & Olivia. I fed Maggie & Walker pancakes (Erik had taken Will with him to the farm show) and we ran a quick errand and within minutes, Walker had fallen asleep in the car. At 7:15 PM. Maggie and I spent the evening reading books and playing. She was so much fun. I hope she always wants to sit with me and have fun.

Well, here are some pictures from the goat show yesterday. Enjoy!
Maggie wasn't quite into the spirit of showing her goat. She was shy.

How can you not find this boy adorable???!!! He has my heart squeezed in his hands!

He is just so sweet.

Butler Farm Show 2008 . . . Day 1

Well, we did it. Both Maggie and Walker managed to show two of our goats this morning at the pee-wee showmanship competition. I almost missed it! I had gone to the front gate to greet my mom, dad, sister, nephew & niece and when we got back, the kids were already in the ring showing!!! I panicked because I thought Erik might have forgotten the camera in his truck since he had left the house earlier than me, but he didn't and he hollered from the ring, "Your camera is over there!" and I grabbed it and started taking some shots. I left the camera in my car tonight, and it is late so I'm not going to upload photos now, but I got some good ones.

Maggie was shy with the judge and didn't want to talk or look at her.

Walker, my little Walkie, did so well. I'm going to take this opportunity now to brag a bit about my boy because the judge was talking about what she likes to see in the pee-wee showmanship competition, and she said, "I really thought the young gentleman in the back did a really great job. He kept his eyes on me the whole time, he smiled a lot and he was able to tell me the breed of goat he was handling." In case you haven't guessed, Walker was the young gentleman in the back! The children were thrilled to come out of the ring with a first place ribbon and a goodie bag. Walker pinned that ribbon on as if it were the "Grand Champion" ribbon. So sweet! Maggie ran it over to me, slapped it in my hand, "Here, Mom!"

Typical!

I am seriously such a sap though because I totally got teary-eyed when the judge said that. I need to get my act together in the next 4 years so I don't break down if he ever really wins anything when he starts competing "for real". What a Loser! Go ahead, Lara, I know you want to make a comment!

Well, all the kids - and children - are asleep. All of them but Maggie fell asleep on the way home from the show grounds. Hopefully all of them will sleep well.

Hmmm. Maggie is in my bed - that is not going to bode well for a good night's sleep! Toes in my back. Not good.

Look for pictures later!

It's Farm Show Week

For those of you that enjoy the television program on E! Entertainment Network, the above caption should be read the way Joel McHale says "It's reality show clip time!"

Ok, so it is Farm Show Week!!! We entered three of our does in the show and tomorrow Walker, and possibly Maggie, will be prancing around the ring in the Pee-wee showmanship class. Yay!

Our goats are looking a little funny though. You see, the Butler Farm Show rules for the goat division is ONLY for dairy goats, therefore, all the breed standards are designed around the dairy goat breeds - and those standards state that goats should not have horns.

The breed standard for meat goats is that they should have horns. We want to stay true to our breed standards.

We got a call tonight from the woman in charge of the goat tent and she told Erik we had to get tennis balls and put them on the goats horns. Erik ventured back to the farm show grounds to put tennis balls on their horns. Apparently it was quite an ordeal and he ended up duct-taping the balls to the horns. I'll post a picture tomorrow!

Anyway, this should prove to be an educational and LONG week. I don't think this will be the last slack we'll get from the goat lady this week. Rumor has it she's pretty tightly wound. We're trying to make a name for ourselves and if all goes well, this gal will more than likely be creating a new 4-H chapter. How does "The Butler County Meat Goat Chapter" sound?

Oh, and to add to the fun, my sister, her two kids, my dad and my mom will be here to watch this spectacle. Say a prayer - I may need it!