Catching Up: Llama, Llama who's your Mama?

"Ama, Ama!"

It was several months ago, and Baby Bee was reaching toward me, nearly shrieking with delight. I reflected his enthusiasm, adding a helping of my own excitement.

"That's right Baby Bee, I'm MAMA!" I  pointed at myself, expanding on his gesture. "Mama!"

You wait for this moment as a parent. You wait and hope and when it doesn't come you are grateful for the other things--like words or communication at all. You learn that kids on the spectrum or with language delays often have some unusual first words. He'd mastered GOAT and DATE as in, "Let's go on a date" or "What's the date today?" But I was still waiting to hear him to refer to me as anything besides "milk." Adding Mama as his fourth word felt exhilarating.  

"Ahhhh-ma!"

"That's right, Mama!"

Baby Bee was no longer delighted. His face scrunched, preparing for his hallmark scream of frustration. He reached toward me again emphasizing the first syllable. "ahhhhh-ma."

He was still reaching so I figured he wanted picked up. 

He didn't. 

(I have the bite marks to prove it.)

I heard a noise outside and reflectively glanced over my shoulder toward the window. In our house, we hear noises, talk about noises, and search out their source. Then we talk about them some more.

But I didn't make it past a first glance. Instead, something on the window sill caught my eye.

Llama, llama who's your Mama?

Yep. That's right.

 A llama.*








*Technically this IS an alpaca. We know this. But somehow we got into a habit of calling it a llama and we just couldn't stop.

Yard (and any other viable space) Decor.

Did I ever mention that the former owners of our house, really, really liked yard "decorations"? This picture doesn't do their love for tacky ornaments justice. 

Take this photo and extrapolate. 

Imagine a complete collection of cow memorabilia. (double this)

Imagine how every "special place" might have it's own unique set of decorations. For instance, you can picture a set of "fairy furniture," arranged comfortably under a large tree, complete with a pink rocking chair (pictured above) as a perfect resting place for any mythical creature tired of flapping its wings to relax.

Imagine how the owners' love for "things" like this may have crept into the windows and crevices of our house and how interesting it must be to pull open the blinds in the spare bedroom, only to discover a set of twirling crystals wrapped in wire and attached so firmly to the blinds that it requires near demolition to remove.

Imagine my surprise, a year into home ownership, when we explore a new area of the property and come across another "find." Most recently, I unearthed a wooden patriotic eagle that doubles as a wind spinner (yes, I looked it up, that is the proper term.) I imagine it looking strikingly like this one in it's glory days...

Imagine your dear partner who has a fancy for rhyming (and real poetry, much to his credit), and a particular penchant for memorizing anything non-useful, discovering these posters with the caption below. 

"May neither drought, nor rain, nor blizzard.
Destroy the joy-juice in your gizzard.
And may you camp where wind won't hit you,
Where snakes won't bite, and bears won't git you!"

Imagine how often I hear Mr. Bee repeat this bizarre little ditty because he thinks it is so weird and funny. 

I guess some things can't be blamed on the previous owners. 

Mower Mouth

In honor of our future farm members, I present to you, Shaun the Sheep's Mower Mouth. As you would expect from the maker's of Wallace and Grommit, it's worth nearly every second of the seven minutes this video takes. And it's sure to make you laugh. :)