Fall at the Farm

A while back...I can't even remember quite when. Maybe three weeks ago?...I accompanied Mam's class on a field trip to a local working farm. This was Mam's first kindergarten field trip and her first time on a school bus. For whatever reason, ancient, yellow buses are a lot more exciting than, say, the shuttle to the water park at Disney World.She was thrilled just to be boarding the bus. But it was a really fun visit to the farm too.

This particular farm is hidden away in a little valley, so despite the fact that it's not far from home, it still feels very pastoral. They have amazing docents who lead the kids in songs, let them sample produce from the beautiful, big vegetable garden...teach them about compost and take them to visit the animals.Since tasting wonderful, new, fresh foods is not Mam's forté, you won't be surprised to hear that her favorite part was visiting the animals. It's been a long time since she had such a good opportunity to get up close and personal with animals. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to watch her. I don't know any child more enthusiastic about animals than she is. To witness her interaction with a rhinoceros when she was just two and a half, was to be just about rolling on the ground with laughter. Given the opportunity, in a group visiting animals, she'll hog all the animals' attention for herself. This trip was no different.Fortunately, one of her classmates was scared to death of animals and refused to come in the pens and another was just slightly afraid, coming in the pens, but keeping her distance. That gave Mam plenty of time and space to get all the animal love she could. She listened raptly to the docent too.It's just so cute to see her so interested in something. It's sort of like taking Smunch to a baseball game. And this...this is Mam's equivalent of witnessing a home run and possibly the very closest she's gotten to a goat.At the end of the trip, each kindergartner got to take a pumpkin back to class where they weighed it and learned about concepts of less and more before taking it home.Although she was excited to go on a fun trip with Mommy and meet lots of animals. A pumpkin of her own was the icing on the cake.

Smunchism #161

Smunch: "Sometimes Mam is still pesterous to me."

Where did she go?

I'm painfully aware that I haven't written a single bloggity word in three weeks now. It's not because nothing's going on. There's always something going on around here, but it hasn't been very inspiring. It's been a lot of parenting and practicing patience, for the most part. Despite the fact that I knew it was coming, I'm struggling a little with the decline in Smunch's ability to speak. The stuttering was so mild at the beginning of the school year that it was easy to forget it was even there. Now, it takes every fiber of patience just to let him get through whatever he needs to say without finishing his sentence or pretending to listen instead of actually listening. I have to remind myself that as hard work as it is for me, there are children with much greater "issues" and their parents are working that much harder. How much I admire them. They look so patient and strong on the outside. Perhaps they're just as impatient and wimpy on the inside. It's hard to tell.

On a different note, before I went AWOL, my father-in-law generously gave me a new lens for my camera. That means I've taken some beautiful photos of late, even if they're fairly meaningless. Or brainless, as the case may be...Somewhere between the last post and this one, it magically turned into Fall.Ah, Fall. Probably one of my favorite times of year. I love how it cools off, but it's still sunny and beautiful when it's not rainy and wet, and the yard is populated by a herd (a flock, a coven??) of garden spiders hanging out in some really spectacular webs.Daddy doesn't like that last part so much.

It's also soccer season, so most of each Saturday is taken up with wedging legs through shin guards and securing cleats to little feet. And cheering of course. There's always cheering. I have lots of pictures of soccer, but really? You want more soccer? I thought not. Mam is now up to 19 goals for the season, but her peers have rapidly caught onto the game and she isn't nearly the prolific scorer that she was in the first couple of games.

And it's coming up to Halloween already, which is scary in and of itself. What do you suppose this guy is going to be for Halloween?The kids have already donned their costumes at least once. Mam, this year, is a witch, while Smunch is some sort of evil knight. The package actually said "Dark Knight", but that sounded all wrong with the latest Batman.

The compost bin is looking particularly rich at this time of year and its full of all kinds of bugs. I looked in there the other day to find this flower, left over (sorta) from Daddy's party. I think maybe the decomposition process actually made it more beautiful than it was to begin with. I love what's left of the leaves, all vein-y and skeletal.After a couple of significant rain storms, I started getting a little cabin fever an actually went out letterboxing...solo...at this lovely place. It was a great day for a walk, even if I got showered on quite a bit.And I accompanied Mam on a lovely little kindergarten field trip to a local working farm. I think that's another blog post and has nothing to do with my new camera lens, which I didn't bring. I didn't even bring the big camera for that one.

For now, it's Fall at home, at school and on the soccer field. And that'll be just fine for a while...

Mamism #247 Expectations

Mam: Mamma, next time, put water in my lunchbox!

Me: What? Oh, there was no water in your lunchbox?

Mam: No. Next time put water in there.

Me: Well, Daddy packed your lunch, so you should talk to him about it.

Mam: Oh...well, he did a pretty good job.