Two exciting weekends

We went to Madison last weekend, where we saw this guy at the Farmer's Market. Also - Cora got to play with some cousins! This is so exciting to me because my own cousins were my favorite playmates when I was growing up, and they always seemed extra important since they were both my friends and my relatives. Of course, when I was little most of my cousins lived two hours away or less. I really hope that as Cora gets older she gets to have these kinds of relationships with her cousins, but I don't know - we're all spread so far around, from Minnesota to Colorado to Georgia to California to Germany. Travel is tough for us - financially and emotionally. Four hours is probably our top driving distance at this point, without serious abuse of the portable DVD player.

And then, this morning, we had our annual State Fair excursion. I'd been talking it up with Cora about the animals we would see, and she was most interested in seeing the pigs. Excuse me, the piggies! Funny, since last year it was a pig that scared the bejesus out of her and made her cry. But, this year, the piggies were all that and a bag of chips. She even got to pet a member of the Best Litter. And she was very proud of her pig ears crown.



Of course, we'd started with the cows, who turned out to be a little bigger than she expected, and a little scary. After pigs, she wanted to see horses. But, the sheep and goats come first. We saw several lambs getting shorn (meat lamb judging day), and a nice man gave Cora a piece of wool to feel. Goats were okay by Cora, but I didn't get to pet too many.

Then, finally, on to the horses. Who were way bigger than expected. When one swung her huge, gorgeous head down towards Cora, who was in her stroller, Cora almost pushed her way out the back of the stroller, shrieking “Scary, scary!” I think she now officially gets the difference between scary and exciting. But me, I was happy to pet that friendly horse.

We hit the poultry barn next, which includes rabbits, in addition to all the crazy hens, roosters, ducks, pigeons, and turkeys. Cora loved this part. When we tried to leave in search of fresh air (man, those chickens stink!), she demanded more. More what? More turkeys! More big bunnies! OK.

Along the way we also had corn dogs and ice cream. Whew. Oh – and before we left we went to the Miracle of Birth Center and saw some lambs that were about six hours old and some piglets very fresh from the sow – still walking around with umbilical cords. So, tonight, Cora and I looked through her newborn pictures, too. One of her favorite things at the fair was seeing baby animals drinking their mama's milk, so we found pictures of that, too. She was rightfully proud of being like a baby piggie.