Playgroup at the Farm...and Aubin's First Black Eye

For a fun fall day activity, though it may not quite feel like one here, Aubin and I drove up to a Hay and Feed store to meet up with some other mamma's and their chicks for a day visiting animals, hay mazes, and other fun things. I don't really know many of the women in our ward yet, so when I got there I just kind of waited for a little while till I saw some other moms arrive with their kids. I cautiously asked if they were here for the playgroup and was much relieved and delighted when the response was "yes!" Phew.

So off Aubin went to check out the place. Little kids scrambled from here and there eager to see all the fun things to see. Aubin immediately went straight for the pumpkins and scarecrows that decorated the front lot. He just had to touch and feel them. I had to laugh because we barely walked in the place before Aubin was excitedly pointing and motioning for me to come to him as he said "dat?" "Dat" was a big, huge, metal sculpture of a horse standing up on it's two hind legs. I swear he would not move from that spot, and even after he did, he kept going back over and over. He clearly wanted to take the thing home, but no...that was not going to happen. I couldn't help but laugh, seeing as that there were all kinds of cool and interesting LIVE animals all around him, and yet the fake, still-motion horse was what fascinated him the most. Ya just never know do you?

The pumpkins and scarecrows in the front. I love that you can see the shadow of him pointing to show me.

The mesmerizing metal sculpture.


Finally I was able to create some momentum with him, and I got him to walk around and see what other things were hanging about. There were goats, and pigs, a donkey, etc... Amongst all of which were several chickens and their trail of chicks. Very cute, and very fun! Next to the metal horse, the tortoises seemed to interest Aubin the most. He just sat there and stared forever as soon as he saw them. I don't think he could figure out for the life of him if they were alive or fake. Check out his face in the pictures below! So funny!

These turkeys had a notice on their cage stating that they weren't for sale. I would want a sign that said that too if I was a turkey!

His pointing finger went right back to his body as soon as those little heads stuck out towards it. They kept thinking he had treats for them.

If you can't already see, click on this picture and you will see the cute little chick sticking out of it's mommy's wing. This was so cute because the mom kept puffing up and the little chickies kept peeking out from all over. Aubin was a little confused.

Check out this fella! He (or she) is an Emu. Definitely camera shy.

Aubs LOVED these fish. When we lived with my folks in Washington, their was a family that we knew that had a koi pond in the backyard and Aubin loved to watch them get fed. He was just as interested here. He brought me back multiple times, pointing, and saying "shishy!"

Cautiously checking out the sheep.

Water. It never gets old.

I LOVE turtles. My dad almost bought me a tortoise in high school, because I think turtles/tortoises are so cute and just cool. I was pretty much squealing to myself when I saw these suckers.

Aubin wasn't quite as confident with his opinion of them.

Hahahaha! He stood there frozen like this FOREVER. No talking, no pointing, no moving, no nothin'. Just staring. At the weird shelled things.

Randomly Aubin decided his shirt needed to be up, and he needed to be left alone to walk around that way. Every time I even tried to touch his shirt, he yelled and bolted for it....Luckily he got over it eventually.

Goats. Funny creatures.

This donkey, named Eeyore of course, made a loud call as soon as the kids came in. It was pretty funny because it caught them all off guard and they just weren't sure what in the heck that noise was!

This pig will always have a special place in my heart. She was such a pig! Every time you walked by she would come running in the hopes of getting some food. She was so gentle too. Love her!

I don't think he likes me looking at him. Look how big that gut is...No wonder he's sitting down!

The momma chicken, pictured earlier, leading all her chicks.

This guy worried me. He was probably fine since it is a farm meant for kids to visit, but just in case I made Aubin keep his distance.

After we thoroughly investigated all the livestock, we went over to explore the hay maze. I didn't want him to go in alone, because if he did I might never see him again, so I went in with him. It was very, very, very dark. Completely in fact. And very confining. I have to admit that I got a little bit of claustrophobia somewhere in the middle. I knew that I was at least too far to turn back, so I just continued on forward and fumbled my way through the dark. I was also holding Aubin because he had decided somewhere back that he no longer wanted to go through the maze. If he wanted to start it though, he was going to finish it, so I just carried him through the rest of it. Finally we emerged to a bright sunny sky. I was very relieved, because I really was starting to freak out a little. I later found out that the maze isn't actually finished, and will have lighting inside when it's done. That would've been helpful. It was still fun though and definitely got me into the spooky spirit. After that we sat down and ate our sack lunch with the rest of the brew. The kids mostly ran around, and went in and out of the maze while snatching bites here and there. It was lots of fun. All free too, you can't beat that! I'm sure that we will return several times before our stay here is done.

Messin' around in the hay.

"I'm not doing anything..."

On our way out we saw this little guy scurrying away. It's a lizard if you can't tell. He was way fast too!

As for the second part of this post, yes you read right. Aubin got his first black eye. I must say, Chris and I know the kid is feisty and that often gets him in trouble, but we were both surprised that the black eye came so early! I thought he would be at least 7. At any rate, so Aubin was coming down the stairs by himself, as he almost always does, when he apparently had a light bulb turn on. He thought it would be fun not to step down off of the last stair, but to roll off the last stair step. Chris and I were aware of his coming, but weren't exactly worried about it since he's done it at least 500 times already, and as a result weren't really seeing what he was about to do. Not that it really would have changed anything, because I really don't think we would have thought what happened... would happen. So Aubin goes rolling down the last step, and just below is one of his wooden toy trucks. He somehow lands just right on that truck, and his eye slams into the corner of the truck. Immediately he screams, we go running, and immediately we see it. Puffy, purple, under-eye sadness. He looked so pathetic. It was so sad. Especially since just the night before he really scratched his back badly on the corner of the electric fireplace (no, we didn't buy one, it's built into the wall of the townhouse). So finally we got Aubin settled down and Chris and I both collapse on the couch, and I smirk over at Chris and say "Geez, good thing child protective services isn't investigating us." "Well, you know... when he doesn't listen I gotta show 'em whose boss!" Just kidding! We're really good parents, truly we are...he's just a...boy! He's really okay though. I think it really hurt the first day because every time he touched it he would kind of jump, but that quickly wore off. We couldn't really get a picture of it initially, and then afterwards the only time we thought about taking a picture was when he was taking a bath. So there's your explanation for why he's all wet. Another "milestone" reached, oh so many more to go...May we be blessed through the challenge!

You can't see it very well in these pictures, but it's the best we could do. He sure is cute!

Awww!

PS- Random thought...why do they call it a black eye anyways? It's not actually black. It makes me wonder for whom this phrase was named...they must've had a REALLY bad lookin' eye!