Sunday Fun: Desert Boy Pulls the Wagon

Aunt Tana had this fun wagon down in her zoo, and as soon as Desert Boy saw it, he scampered up on it and started playing with the handle. If it has wheels, he wants to be on it!

He started making his vroom, vroom noises as he imagined he was riding along. The goats bleated in the background, making for quite an interesting cacophony of sounds.

Even though Desert Boy didn't move the wagon anywhere, he was happy. He's generally a very happy little boy.

Later we decided to play another game--Desert Boy would pull his Mama sitting on the wagon. He grabbed hold of the wagon handle and pulled with all his might. There was a little too much friction to get the wagon going, so I gave a little push with my legs.

And that made him promptly fall down. He thought it was funny.

He got up and tried again.

And quickly fell down again when I gave the wagon a little nudge. This went on and on, with Desert Boy pulling and falling, pulling and falling, and he thought it was the best game ever. Fortunately I managed to catch some of it in video mode so you can hear his laughter. Have a great day!

Sunday Fun: Basketball

Desert Boy has apparently been getting the vibes--it's ball time! What better thing to do on a cold fall afternoon than go out and take a few shots. His form looks pretty good as he lines up the ball.

And then, whoosh, he dunks it. Desert Boy 1!

This may look normal, Desert Boy bends to retrieve the ball, but it's not. Usually Henry steals the ball and we have to find another or wait for him to get bored with it before resuming play. No one ever said it was easy to play ball in the desert!

Leaf Piles

Don't forget the photo caption contest below--entries due by Thursday 6 p.m. PDT.

As you can see from the above photo, our yard is full of leaves. And it also contains a little boy trying to mount his puppy. But we'll ignore that for the moment. We have trees all around the yard. The catalpas lost their leaves first, then the elms and silver poplars. The Lombardy poplars and apricot trees still have some leaves hanging on.

I raked lots of big piles of leaves. There's something a little odd about this one--can you tell?

Desert Boy has discovered he loves to be covered up with leaves. He just laughs and laughs.

Here he is emerging.

And now he's free!

After I rake the piles, I put them in the back of the truck and drive down to the meadow, where I dump them in a pile for the deer and cows to eat.

It looks like a fun pile to jump into, doesn't it? So I did, and landed on a sharp stick. Somehow leaf piles are always a lot more fun as a kid.

Desert Boy's Fashion Statement

Desert Boy is getting old enough so that he likes to make some of his own decisions. While I was putting clothes away yesterday, he found some clothes he wanted to put on---his airplane pajamas and winter boots. He was very happy when I dressed him in this stunning attire.

Until he got distracted by a book. He loves books. Fortunately he usually doesn't take too many books off the bookshelf at the same time. We're still working on the concept of putting books back on the bookshelf.

Desert Boy is trying a James Bond getaway move. Apparently the boots give him some extra power and agility. 

But then he reconsiders and decides the best way to get what he want is to strut his stuff unabashedly. Go Desert Boy, you're ready for the runway. (pun definitely intended)

p.s. Be sure to check back on Tuesday for a caption contest with a great prize. And tomorrow is a fun desert destination.

Desert Boy Rides a Horse in the Kitchen

This morning I was in the kitchen eating breakfast when Desert Boy came trotting in on his horse. I couldn't help myself, I totally cracked up. The little stuffed horse is tiny in comparison to him, but still he thought up the idea all on his own and had a lot of fun riding his horse.

He even had some good horse riding noises and made the horse go in all different directions.

After a bit of riding nicely, he decided it was time to get adventurous.

His California cousins do vaulting, gymnastics on horseback, so maybe he was inspired by them as he started doing some interesting moves.

How low can you go?

Golly, I wish I was so flexible!

But alas, even a toy horse can buck, and Desert Boy ends up flat on his back on the ground. 

Sunday Fun: Animal Noises

Desert Boy has been working on his animal noise repertoire. He cooperated for a little film shoot this morning so you can join in on the fun. 

Desert Boy and Henry Play

Desert Boy and Henry headed into the yard to enjoy some of the beautiful autumn weather a few days ago. Desert Boy really likes being pushed on his little bike. He also sometimes shuffles it along--his legs still aren't quite long enough to reach the pedals. Here he is with one of those fun expressions. 

Then he discovers a ball and heads over to it. "Ball" is another one of his first words, and he keeps repeating it over and over whenever he sees anything that remotely resembles a ball.

Henry is also fascinated with balls, so as soon as Desert Boy has it, Henry wants it. Desert Boy isn't intimidated by Henry, despite being heftily outweighed by him, and tries to keep it away. Is he successful?

Not quite, but at least he finds another ball to play with.

He throws the ball to Mama and comes to get it. Please note what Henry is doing in the background: destroying the swing! It only took him all summer to gnaw off a part of the board. If only I can train him to eat all the leaves that will be soon covering the yard.

Desert Boy the Plumber

Desert Boy the Plumber says go vote today!

Because we live out in the boonies, we actually had to vote last week because we're a mail-in district and wanted to make sure our ballots got to the county clerk's office in time. I sort of miss going to a polling place, passing the people outside on the sidewalk trying to convince you at the last minute to vote for their candidate, waiting in line, and going into the little booth and pressing the buttons to make those important choices. On the other hand, mailing a ballot in does have some perks like being able to vote wearing pajamas.

Whatever the results, it will be nice to have an end to the advertisements, excessive TV coverage, and most of all, all the phone calls. The 45-second surveys generally last several minutes, and if a survey is supposed to last 5 minutes, you better be prepared for 15. Eeesh. A couple calls have been sort of amusing: a candidate saying he is for taking the water in our valley and exporting it (hmmm, I think we are the wrong target audience for that phone call), and another for a candidate that lives in Virginia. That dialer sure got the wrong area code!

Have a good election day, and if you have any plumbing problems, Desert Boy is really good at flushing.

Happy Halloween from the Cow

Today is Halloween, a holiday I've always really enjoyed. I think it's partly because you get to dress up and act like a totally different person. It fulfills my secret desire to be an actress for one day of the year. Of course my sweet tooth might have something to do with my enjoyment of the holiday. 

Now that I'm an adult, I don't dress up as often, and I don't even have a costume for this year. But  that's okay, because I have a son who I can dress up and he's still young enough I can eat his candy! My mom gave us this cow costume, which is totally apropos for where we live.

And here's Desert Boy even pretending he's a cow. Moooo.

The things we will do to get some candy. And my, how the candy has changed since I was a young'un. Here's an example, some gummy candy. I remember gummy bears, but here we have a whole gummy meal: ice cream cone, donut, french fries, hamburger, pizza, and hot dog. Doesn't it sound scrumptious?

Trick or treating is late this afternoon, but I figured it might be good to go outside and get some photos early in the day, while Desert Boy is in a good mood.

Here he's concentrating hard. Not on being a cow, but on putting the leaves through the little slots in the chair. 

Here's Desert Boy pretending to be a cow again. Okay, not really, the head is a little big and it makes him a little tipsy.

Here he is running away from me. Nice tail. Where is he running?

To every cow's favorite pasttime--cruising on his hot wheels. He's probably the only cow going Vroom, vroom.

And I tried my best to get him to say Mooo while in his costume. This video is the best one I came up with:

Pushing the Stroller

I guess Desert Boy is getting older. He often prefers to push his stroller rather than ride in it. This stroller carries up to 70 pounds of weight, so we figured we would be able to use it for years and years. 

The only problem Desert Boy has pushing the stroller is that he's a little short. Nevertheless, he doesn't let that stop him. He walks behind the stroller and gives it a shove.

Then he watches it until it stops. I'm glad we live in the valley, where the ground is relatively flat. If he pushed the stroller up in the mountains, we might never catch up to it.

An Important Lesson

If you've been following this blog, you know that Desert Boy loves to climb. He'll climb anything; I found him halfway up the piano yesterday. Earlier in the week he started climbing the fence above. I pulled him off and showed him what barbed wire is and made him touch it. Think he'll understand the significance of this lesson?

Curious Cows

Yesterday afternoon we went for a little walk behind our house. The cows were out in the pasture and, as cows often are, were eager for a little entertainment. Not the Hollywood type of entertainment, but just something to make their day a little more interesting. Like a visit from Henry and Desert Boy.

Sometimes Henry chases cows, despite my attempts to make him stop, so I wasn't too certain how he'd act when he started approaching the cows. He paused and looked like he was going to be calmer. Maybe that's because I made him run two miles, chasing the truck to the babysitters and back. Perhaps I'll start running again soon, but in the meantime, I find the current exercise program for Henry very easy for me!

Back to the scene at hand. Henry and the lead cow assess each other.

They cautiously approach.

They reassess. I can only wonder what's going through their minds right now.

Henry takes a few more steps forward. The cow stares.

Henry makes a final few steps and then retreats. He's no working cow dog, after all.

Now we have the attention of the small herd, and they start approaching us as a whole. It takes a little getting used to to stare down a few tons of beef cattle.

Especially when they have some belligerent faces.

And drool. 

And give you a mean, intimidating stare. But I know better, these cows are just looking for some fun, and it is a little hard to take a cow seriously when she has hay hanging out of her mouth.

Still, though, when they lower their heads and take a few more steps closer, I have to take a deep breath and remember that with a shout and stomp of my feet I can make them all scattter.

Desert Boy stays pretty close to Mama, but he's very interested in these beefy bovines.

Hey, Ma, this is cool. Thanks for letting me take a walk!

And then Henry reappears, and Desert Boy gets distracted, as you can see in the video below. Notice how the cows just watch the whole thing. It's a good life.