Thursday, September 19, 2013

Animal friends, joy and sorrow

I know basically all three-year-olds have a special affinity for animals.  I know every mom at this stage thinks, "Aw, my little kid loooooves animals so much and clearly is going to be a veterinarian/zoologist/biologist/avid equestrian someday."

But dude...my kid really loves animals.

In fact, for the record, she and her cousin spent the better part of a Saturday recently passing a pet caterpillar back and forth and often fighting over it.  When I suggested that we needed to leave the caterpillar behind when we left because he would be lonesome without his mama, my 3-year-old countered that she could find his mama and bring her too, which commenced a thorough investigative search and ended with me just letting the stinking caterpillar in my car.  There were tears when I finally drew the line at letting her bring him in the ice cream shop.

Something similar happened with two pet ants recently.  I think she named them Bob.

Anyway, that's just insects.  Behold...a cow who kisses (licks) your hand...



 
And I guess she's something of a goat whisperer, because this goat let her hold his face and kiss him umpteen times.



 We took a random mid-day trip to this farm with some special friends because we'd had plans to see Doc McStuffins in DC, but after Monday's tragedy it was cancelled.  It was a pretty perfect way to salvage the day, because horrific events won't keep us from living our lives to the full.  I think that's kind of the only way to honor those devastated by senseless murder...keep living and loving.

Daddy dropped in as a surprise and someone was beside herself.

 So they played in the hay.  Then we picked unripe apples from the wrong row and they kind of taste like potatoes but we've been eating them anyway.

She thinks she's hidden.
All those precious lives on Monday had faces they loved like this one's, faces that lit up when they walked into a room.  It hurts me that joy and love and laughter were stolen that day.  Selfishly, it frightens me, too...what could have happened if the Disney Junior event, which was to take place only a few blocks from the crime scene with hundreds of children waiting in line by 8 am, had been one day earlier?

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