Your Uncle Wes, Aunt Amanda, and cousin Kai are here for the long weekend. We go the Plum Loco Animal farm as a family of seven (including MorMor and Cappi) this morning. I help you feed the sheep, goats, and horses for the first time. I hold your hand flat so the sheep can tongue the pellets off of your palm. You giggle at the sensation.
This afternoon we go to Troup Park and I briefly regret not putting you in your swimsuit as you plop your jeans in the shallow water, but you have so much fun playing in the sand and climbing the rocks.
Kai gets to explore, too. He has fewer opportunities to be at the beach, and while you two aren’t quite old enough to play together, it makes my heart happy to have you both in the same space. After dinner, you both have me help you off the big porch steps and end up in the sandbox together. You ham it up for MorMor’s camera.
You also have discovered you love your bike. This was a gift from your grandparents, Mama A’s parents, last Christmas, and I’ve been taking it out once every few weeks since you turned one to see if you were ready for it. You have mostly been both obsessed and frustrated to the point where it didn’t seem fun, so I’ve continued to put it away.
But Kai brought his own little bike up this weekend. You watched him on it last night and then tried it yourself later, and something seemed to click. I brought your bike to the cottage today (yesterday we learned that having one bike and two toddlers around is a recipe for mini tantrums), and you rode it around the driveway after dinner. You got on and off by yourself, and only needed my help a few times — mostly when you decided to cross the road and go over the little footbridge that leads to the path down to the water.
It was hard to say goodbye to the bike when it was time to go home. A good sign you were having fun.
Love,
Mama