More Fort Rickey

What's not to love about a place that lets you hold baby goats? It was so cool, and their little bleating noises were just adorable. Too bad Josephine kept chasing them and cackling at them like a witch...they didn't seem too fond of that! Another funny thing that happened was when one of the mama goats came up behind Maria and started chewing on her hair - Maria just sat there frozen, not knowing what to do. Don't worry, I was there to pull her spit-soaked hair out of the goat's mouth!

The girls just loved holding these baby goats, and Lou seemed to not mind it too much, either! There's just something about seeing kids' faces light up when they see baby animals - priceless.

Giving the llamas a snack. These things were ravenous, the brown one practically jumped over the fence when Maria offered it some food!

There were peacocks walking all over the place, and eventually, Josephine got it in her head that she wanted to "play" with one. She saw one chillin' inside an area surrounded by a split-rail fence, and proceeded to climb the fence to go inside and socialize. Her planned got squashed when Lou yanked her back over the fence, saying something about her getting her eyes pecked out - what a killjoy...

The Playground at Fort Rickey

They had a great play area there, but the ball pit was the favorite for our crew (as much as I loathe those nasty things...). As you can see, even Lou couldn't resist joining in. Is it me, or does he look like he's having severe abdominal pains in this picture?

Okay, can you find the DeGaetanos in this picture? There are two of them in there...

Cutie pie Josephine, with a not-so-cutie-pie runny nose...

Yes, this is Lou tossing Josephine into the ball pit, and she is loving it!

And now it's Maria's turn to get thrown in - what is it with mens' insatiable need to throw their children into the air?

The Rest of Fort Rickey

That is Maria petting a five-foot long red-tailed boa constrictor named "Boris". She was shy at first, but then she really got into it.

Maria the Snake Charmer did become a bit nervous, however, when the demonstrator laid the snake on her shoulder and head!!

Pony rides - yay! Maria was kind of nervous - she kept asking the handler where the seat belt was...

Josephine, however, was right at home on the little pony. She just kept saying - "Ride pony, ride pony!"

Well, the first day of our "staycation" was great! We ended up exploring the Sylvan Beach area later on (just around the corner from Fort Rickey), and it was so cute, we think we will go there tomorrow!

I love two year olds!

Okay, lately I am really feeling that two is my favorite age. I love the way they still have that bouncy baby walk, and everything is so exciting to them. They have so much personality, and none of the mouthiness of older children. They are at that age where everything they say is so cute. I love their goofy broken English. And best of all, they still take naps!
Tonight at dinner we had a real struggle with getting Josephine to finish her dinner. She hadn't eaten very much, and we wanted her to finish. We were going to have ice cream for dessert, and we told her that if she didn't finish her dinner, she wouldn't be getting any (does this sound familiar to any of you?!). She just kept saying "Don't want it" over and over (this is her new favorite sentence, and even says it when people she doesn't know well try to give her hugs). Lou and I kept finding different ways to explain her that if she would just take a couple more bites of dinner, that she could have ice cream. The more she staunchly repeated "Don't WANT IT!", the more we stood our ground. Even when the ice cream was being dished out, she refused to give in. Lou and I started to think that maybe she was a bit young for this line of logic, that maybe she didn't quite get our agreement, and finally gave in when Maria asked if she could share with Josephine.
Josephine took one bite of Maria's blackraspberry ice cream and smiled. Lou asked her "Is that good?" And Josephine, my little two-year-old, furrowed her brow, gave us her little mischievous smiled and replied in a very serious tone: "Dewicious" (aka "delicious"), as if to say "I WON!" Smarter than you think - okay, now that's what I love about two-year-olds...

As of late...

So here is the latest and the greatest from the DeGaetano clan:

The Bobbsey Twins here never cease to amaze me with the trouble they get into. Maria comes up with the great schemes and Josephine is like her own little personal Igor, helping her along the way. In the last month they have:

• emptied an entire bottle of baby powder all over their room
• stuffed almost an entire roll of toilet paper in the toilet, causing, of course, said toilet to flood
• "Cleaned" the kitchen floor by pouring water all over it and spreading it around with rags

"Where is the mother while all this is happening?", you may ask - cleaning up the LAST mess they made...

We found a huge patch of wild black raspberries at the end of our dead end street. Here is Josephine looking very serious after eating a large bowl of them. Seriously funny, that is...

Yes, even her hands were dyed red, as well as her belly, her feet, and her bum (yes, she was sitting naked eating a bowl of berries - ahhh to be two again!)

And here is Maria looking like some kind of messed up court jester...(she was helping me hang clothes on the line - hence the line of clothespins on her shirt)

And here is me smiling at you - have a good day!

They fired me!

At the Fourth of July picnic, Kaytlyn Flansburgh pointed out that I wasn't wearing the traditional red, white and blue, an action that was, according to her, very unpatriotic. I made a crack about probably being released as Activities Committee Chair as a result, and it came true! I was released from my beloved calling (sniff sniff) this past Sunday. Okay, so it wasn't really because of my attire at the picnic - I actually knew about the release the Sunday before the picnic - but I was still very sad nonetheless. I have truly LOVED this calling, and was so bummed to be released after only 10 months! I was released because they were calling me into the Relief Society Presidency as the 2nd counselor. Now, I know this sounds really dumb, but I somehow feel way too young to be in the Relief Society presidency! I mean, I know that I've been married for over nine years and have two kids, but...okay so maybe I'm not that young. Darn it. Oh well - wish me luck!

Oh, the irony...

Okay, funny story. So Maria has this thing lately where she insists on pouring her own milk on her cereal, and of course she always pours too much, and then doesn't want to finish it all when she's done with her cereal. Well, yesterday I told her that I was sick of her wasting so much milk, and that starting the next day, if she wanted to pour her own milk she was going to have to drink everything that she poured, no matter what. So of course today she pours way too much again, and doesn't want to finish it all after she's done with her cereal. I told her that she wasn't going to leave the table until she finished (you can see where this is headed...), and of course she put up a fight. She did NOT want that milk - "I don't WANT this milk, I HATE this milk", etc. - and I was NOT going to let her win this. Well, after about 20 minutes, she got the great idea to pour herself some more cereal, so that she could consume the milk the way she normally does, along with some nice crunchy cereal. Then she decided that she wasn't hungry, and that she wasn't going to eat anymore - period. I again informed her that she wasn't going anywhere until she finished, and she spent the next 20 minutes crying and throwing a fit. After all this time, she noticed that the cereal that she poured had absorbed all the milk that was left. She expressed great disgust at the sight of all this soggy, mushy cereal (it was pretty gross...), at which point she said "Mommy, I need some more milk!" Sigh - isn't that how all this started? Ahhh, parenthood.