Your goat is crazy!

   I know. It's been too long. I keep looking at the blog wanting to write a post. But then I kinda hope maybe it'll do something by itself if I just leave it alone. So much for that. Today's hot topic: The Farm! We are very lucky to have a children's farmstead close by. Deanna Rose Farmstead. It is awesome! Picture chickens, ducks wandering, lots of cows, even more goats, play areas, pony rides, and a fishing pond.

See the cows!!! See the cows!!

   Harrison is in love with Deanna Rose. Like I mean, he points (and grunts) at every single animal. He LOVES the goats!! The big ones, the little ones... The boy does not discriminate. Harrison got to feed the big goats (dairy goats) and laughed the entire time. At one point his whole hand was in the goat's mouth. He's just sitting there laughing. Other kids are afraid of getting bitten, Harrison's that laughing kid everyone is looking at. At least he's happy, right?

Goat nibbles.

   After we feed the big goats, we go in the petting zoo area to attempt to pet the little goats. Harrison just follows them around. Laughs when they lick his hand. And of course, walks through every pee spot... (I keep reminding myself he's a boy and boys do this.) We had a few close calls with some goats that were playing (aka head butting each other), but we survived. 

Petting goats with mom!

   Harrison even took Daddy there to show off his new friends the goats. 

I'm trying to pet the goats. The goats are trying to head butt each other.

   Don't worry after all of that goatness we wash our hands really good then find a shady wooden swing to eat a snack. 

The second coolest thing here is this hand dryer!

   Our snack of choice is water, cheezits and fruit snacks. Harrison then takes a nap as soon as we get home. It's hard work looking at animals and petting goats. The goat shoes stay in the garage until the goat poo comes off. (He's supposed to get messy, he's a boy, and repeat...)

Cheese!!! I have a fruit snack stuck on my tooth!

   

Here's to a nice fall so we can keep visiting the goats!

I think I have officially met my goat quota for the year...

~Emily

Battle wounds

   Kids fall. Kids get hurt. Kids get bumps, bruises and cuts. I know this, but still I didn't want my kid to get all of these battle wounds. We've been doing really well so far. Harrison's hit his head and had a little pink bump. I've nicked him a couple times with the nail clippers (those things are impossible!). But other than that, he's stayed pretty cut-free. However the element of the pool has changed that a bit. Harrison has had 3 (smaller) pool injuries this summer and 1 at Science City.

   First up, Science City vs. Harrison. Harrison has a new fascination with steps and curbs. While exploring on his own at Science City, he kinda bit it on a curb and scratched his nose pretty good. Don't mind the screaming baby... that has a teeny bloody nose... We got him all fixed up and distracted him with some animals. Within 5 minutes he was fine. I tried taking a picture with my phone but you couldn't really tell anything was wrong. Poor guy!

I'm so a stable walker... Right..

   Injury entry #2 - Baby pool vs. Harrison. While wondering between two kiddie pools at the city pool, Adam and I were walking behind Harrison. He tried "entering" the baby pool on his own. We haven't really worked on going down steps... Harrison basically did a somersault into the pool and scratched up his left leg. Once he calmed down and we fed him a snack, everything was fine. I think Adam and I felt worse than Harrison did. I didn't even make eye contact with the lifeguard. I'm sure he/she was thinking "parent fail!" To our defense, those little legs move fast!

I swear in real life it looked worse.    

   And for our third/fourth injury report - Pool concrete vs. Harrison. (As if concrete ever wins...) Yes Harrison is a walker, but he is not 100% stable. Sometimes he gets going too fast and his feet can't keep up with his body. Of course add water into that mix and watch out! Harrison has fallen twice - once in the pool and once outside by the fountains. Luckily it was nothing major but both times he scratched up his left knuckles. 

Check out my knuckles. Totally adds to my street cred.

      I'm so not looking forward to any more cuts, bruises, etc... It hurts me to look at these scratches. Is it too late to just put him in a bubble? I could wrap him in bubble wrap too...

That paranoid mom,

~Emily

Summer adventures!

   The past couple of weeks I've been bound and determined to go on a few family adventures. There's a lot that goes on around here that I either don't know about or don't pay attention to. The activities we chose were indoors (yeah!!) and geared towards kids (although kids a little older than Harrison).
 
Adventure #1: Hallmark's Kaleidoscope
   First of all this adventure was FREE! Even though I'd say kids need to be 3yrs or older we decided to try it out because it's free! Plus this is a place I went to on elementary field trips. I was super excited about going back. Alright, we are home to Hallmark... as in the card people. Right next to their visitor's center is Kaleidoscope. It's a place where kids can make cards, puzzles and other crafts. All supplies are leftovers/donated from Hallmark. It is 100% free (for kids and adults!). It is tons of fun.
   We got our tickets and walked next door to check out the Hallmark visitor's center. We learned about the beginning of Hallmark, we saw a few of the Hallmark Christmas trees and we made a bow on the bow making machine. Upon our exit, the nice ladies at the front desk gave us a Hallmark recordable book! Totally made my day.

There is so much to look at here!

   At 10:30am we hopped in line and went through the doors of the magical Kaleidoscope. Harrison's eyes were big and moving all over. There was so much going on. First stop - the noisy cave. Push the buttons, make a noise.

Inside the noisy cave. Getting ready to push the buttons.

   Harrison tried a few of the crafts, but really Adam and I did all the work. The melted crayons in the black light room have my vote for my most favorite station!

Daddy why don't you do the painting. I'd rather play with the water cups.

   Needless to say we spent most of our time chasing Harrison. He was glued to the Kaleidoscope wall and the fish mirrors. Oh well - it was free!!

Hmm... my nose is a little dirty...

   The session was the perfect amount of time at 45min. After getting all of our stuff together, we walked through Crown Center and headed to Crayon Cafe for lunch. We also visited the Crayola store (umm... amazing!) and the Candy Barrel (Adam gave me $5 for candy!). Overall it was a very successful day!

I'm trying to tell mom all about my day!

Adventure #2: Science City

   Our second adventure was not as successful as the first and it cost money. Oh well, you don't know until you try right? Our Union Station has a kid's science exhibit called Science City. This is probably more appropriate for elementary aged kids. Although Harrison was free, Adam and I were not. I did see online that they have something called KinderLab for younger kids. 

I love the train table, but I love holding the trains more.

   I hate to say this, but it was a glorified play room. It was cool, but not cool enough to pay what we did... Harrison didn't really care. He had fun running around and he was the only kid in the room.

I love walking on this floor!

   We left the KinderLab room and explored the rest of Science City. We saw birds, rabbits and snakes. We went in the "tree house" and down in the "sewer pipes."

Exploring the tree house with dad.

   And of course, we had to make music on our way out. Harrison thought this was great! First we had the trash can drums.

I can actually reach these drums!

   Then we played with the organ - when you waved your hand over the "keys" you created organ sounds.

This is really cool, but really confusing. What's making that noise?

   Finally we got down with the keyboard. If only it was a double decker 80s style keyboard....

I think I was born to be a keyboardist... Too bad I missed the 80s.

   We did have a great day but unfortunately Harrison was just too young for Science City. Our lunch was awesome though... And we did get to explore our city.

On this week's calendar of events: Monkey Bizness and Wonderscope!

~Emily