October 31st, 2010. (2 years, 4 months old.) by ben
For Halloween, I had a great time handing out candy to all the trick-or-treat-ers that came to our door. And there were soooo many of them. (M&D say “one hundred fifty three”, as if that is even a number!) There were princesses, clowns, Thomas the Train, and lots of others.
I didn’t work up the nerve to go out amongst the crowds until it was time for jammies, and even then I didn’t want to put on my pizza slice costume, but M&D still let me go out in my skeleton shirt to a couple houses, and I got some candy! Can you believe it? You just say ‘trick or treat’ and they give you candy!
Next year I’ll be sure to wear my real Halloween costume and visit a few more houses.
Update: Here’s a picture of my pizza slice costume that I didn’t wear:
October 23rd, 2010. (2 years, 4 months old.) by ben
My friends Tommy and Rosie turned 2 and they had pony rides at their party! I got to ride on ‘Sugar’. At first, I wasn’t too sure how this was all going to work. But everyone said it would be OK so I decided to tough it out.
Sugar’s mommy told me to hold on to the saddle horn, so I never let go the whole time.
Almost smiling…
There we go! It was a little scary, but in the end it was OK. My first pony ride! Yay!
Well, Danee’s training helped, but I wasn’t really prepared for how much sand is on the beach. My truck couldn’t even come close to holding it all! That’s OK. I quickly learned to fill, dump, and fill again. And watch out for the water!
And then my cousins introduced me to some more serious sand piling efforts – Grandpa Harris’ challenge to build a sand castle taller than Lauren. With some “creative interpretation of the rules” (Daddy’s phrase), we were able to meet the challenge!
Later, I went on my first ferry ride with Daddy, Mommy, and Grandpa Harris. I had a great time sitting on the seat and watching all the other boats.
Later, we went back to the Fun Zone and took a ride on the Ferris wheel. It goes up, and then down, and then up again!
The next day, M&D took me to the MERRY GO ROUND! Wow! As you can see, I queued up first in line!
I got to go on with Daddy (Mommy cheerfully volunteered for photographer duty – I wonder why?), and the look on my face says it all.
After the merry-go-round, we walked out on the pier and ordered french fries from this restaurant out there.
Very yummy. You can see here that I’m taking care of the fries while Mommy takes care of the smiles. Good job, Mommy!
A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Harris for inviting us to come stay with them. M&D and I had a great time visiting! Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter in the OC adventure!
After the fun airplane ride and getting picked up at the airport by Ma and Pa, one of the next things I got to do was visit with Aunt Danee. She brought me some great sand toys – just in time! And she provided excellent training, including making sound effects. It is really important to make the right sounds when dumping sand. She also told stories about spending time in Balboa when she was younger. Thanks, Danee, for helping me get ready to go to the beach!
Later, Ma wanted to take a family picture. I wasn’t too keen on looking like everybody else, but in the end I decided to concede and join in. M&D say I’ll treasure this in the future. I dunno.
After the family picture, I had a great time playing with my cuz. Avery and I were jumping and sliding like we were, well, 2 years old.
Now I was looking forward to hitting the beach. But that will have to wait until the next installment!
My friend Jack turned two recently (seems like this is happening to a lot of my friends, lately…). He had a full-sized fire truck at his party, and we all got fireman hats to wear!
I got to sit up in the seat. Did you know that fire trucks have lots of steps that you have to climb to get up into them? They are way up off the ground!
There was also a bouncy house at Jack’s party. Boy did I have fun bouncing and rolling around. Maybe I can have one of these at my next birthday party. Daddy?
After a couple of trips to Mary’s Pizza Shack where I got to watch the pros at work, it was time to try my hand at pizza making.
Mommy put me solely in charge of making the breadstick. Here you can see me stretching it out to just the right length. This takes a lot of concentration!
And here, I’m practicing sliding it off of the peel. Easy! (Daddy says it gets harder in the hot oven.)
And here, Mommy is showing me the finer points of adding the sauce and other ingredients.
I hope to help with this part next time. Until then, I think we should go back to Mary’s so I can watch the pros some more!
Yesterday, M&D took me on an adventure to see some cows! We went to McClelland Dairy Farm, where they have lots and lots of them, and they offer tours.
At first, I was a little worried about what cows eat. Turns out this young Jersey calf was just being friendly, and NOT trying to eat Daddy’s watch. Phew!
Of course, then she started to go for Mommy’s pocket. I kept a close eye on her after the watch incident.
Mr. George McClelland gave the tour, which included a chance to milk one of his prize show cows, Valentine. At 1600 lbs, Valentine was a bit imposing, so I decided to leave the milking to the professionals. Maybe next time.
And here are the professionals at work in the milking parlor:
(Ed. Note: Thanks to Laurie Proctor for the pictures (and for organizing the outing through SRMC). Daddy forgot his camera…)
Some fun facts:
The cows can produce between 5 and 14 gallons of milk a day, depending on their diet (low protein grass yields lower milk production, high protein feed results in higher milk production).
It takes 4 to 20 minutes for the cow to get milked in the parlor. Each of their 800 cows are milked twice a day.
Cows have a 9 month gestation period, and they live from 6 to 14 years.
Cows are kept in individual stalls (as pictured above) for the first months after they are born so that the farmers can monitor their health and keep them away from other cows that might be sick.
The milk from McClelland’s Dairy goes to Clover Stornetta, which is the brand of milk we buy!
