New Van

We recently decided we needed some new family wheels. I didn't want to take a photo in the driveway, so I stopped and took a photo on the way back from feeding the bummer calves. This is a much nicer background!

You can see we've already managed to find some dirt and dust!

One of the best things about it is all the space. Like some of our friends mentioned, it's hard to go wrong with the space, especially when we sometimes stock up on groceries only once a month.

And it's great for when it's our turn to carpool to preschool. Here we are with four car seats (Desert Girl's is in the middle and backward facing). We have room for one more in the back with Desert Boy. We can seat up to eight people. Ready for road tripping!

Fun at the Playground

We went to playgroup on Saturday, and the weather was thankfully nice enough to go outside and play. The three little munchkins had lots of fun hanging out and chasing each other while Supermom Nomi looked on.

They were testing all the different ways they could go down and up the slides. It was funny seeing how creative they could get.

Meanwhile Jenny and I had our babies out in the grass. Isaac is just two months older than Desert Girl, but he is already so much bigger! I didn't manage to capture it in these photos, but he has the biggest, most beautiful eyes.

It's hard to imagine that Desert Girl will soon be that much bigger.

Success!

We had success feeding the bummer calves. Desert Boy thought it was pretty neat to go back and visit the calves. They didn't seem to mind his company. They didn't even mind Henry, although Henry was more interested in chasing the ducks in the pond than spending time with the calves.

Nevertheless, he was on the lookout for any spilled milk.

A happy calf. Don't you love all that milk drool?

Desert Boy posing next to the calf. I'm not sure if it has a name yet--the main caretaker gets to name the calves. And often they become quite attached to whomever feeds them and will follow that person around or leave a group of cows to come say hi when they're older. Cows might not be all that intelligent, but they can be cute.

Feeding the Bummer Calves-Training

It's that time of year again when a few calves need to be fed by hand because they don't have mama cows to feed from for one reason or another. This year Cynthia is going to do most of it, but we tagged along for the training session because we'll be backup feeders.

First Dave showed us how where to find the bottles and how to fill them up with warm water.

Then he measured out the milk replacer. "Milk replacer" is a nice, simple, descriptive name. How come none of the baby formula manufacturers use it?

Next is the explanation about the nipples, with smaller holes for the younger calves and bigger ones for the older ones.

Finally, put the nipple on and shake it all up!

Desert Boy decides he wanted to get in on the action. He volunteered to carry the giant bottle out to the calf pen. He had to be told a couple of times that the bottle wasn't for him, no matter how much he wanted to give it a try!

Then Dave put the bottle in a holder to feed to this two-week old calf. She's a twin, and her mom only took one of her calves, so now she's growing up in the bummer calf pen. Our dog Henry is about the same size.

She's quickly adapted to her alternate feeding and is happy to eat.

This four-week old calf's mom died, so that's why he ended up here.

He's also a really good eater. There are several more pens, so as the calving season proceeds, probably a few more will be abandoned and brought in. It's sad to see them without their moms, but at the same time it's nice they have a second chance.

Tomorrow is our first day to go and give feeding a try by ourselves. We'll see how well we learned!

One Month

Desert Girl turned one month on Monday. Yeah, she can't believe it either!

She says, "Hey, Mama, make sure you photograph my good side. And photoshop out all that baby acne."

It's amazing how much like a teenager she is in other ways, too. She likes to be up at all hours, eat huge amounts around the clock, make a lot of noise, and get lots of attention.

Fortunately we don't have any attitude problems. Yet.