May Day Fun

As I mentioned in my previous post, Ryan's parents came to visit for Mother's Day weekend. The kids really wanted Nana and Pap to go strawberry picking with them, so we drove them out to Vollmer farms, our favorite agritourism spot.  The afternoon resulted in a sunburn for me and some strawberry pies for everyone else.  Fun was had by all. We're still eating the fruits of that afternoon.

Notice, Abe has been given the Billy Goat head. 

As you can see, Abe enjoyed the homemade ice cream.

Yes, I am taking a photo of Abe licking a rock that he has just dipped in a bucket of nasty water used to mimic cow milking.  I figure, if you can't beat 'em, photograph 'em.

We also participated in Baby Dedication at our church.  Just so you know, there is a reason why it's called "Baby" Dedication.  Let the record show, I am not an advocate for toddler dedication, if it can be avoided.  This is because it is pretty much a given that putting a toddler on the stage in front of an entire congregation will probably result in some unwanted attention on the family of the toddler.  In our case, Abe decided to show his more aggressive side.  I've been working with him a lot on not hair pulling, pushing, and hitting.  These are behaviors that he has known well since we met him.  Basically, he's a bully, though a very loveable one.  So, while we were on the stage Sunday AM and Ryan was attempting to lead the Baby Dedication portion of the service, Abe was at the perfect vantage point for hitting Isaac and Lizzy on the head.  I just kept taking his hand and rubbing it on my face and saying "gentle, gentle hands."  Now, this technique has begun to work at home.  Not on the stage at church.  He simply went from hitting to hair pulling.  Fortunately, the other children just tolerated it while we waited to be dismissed from the stage.  I suppose it's one more story I can reflect on someday when I'm looking back at how very far we've come.  We weren't able to get a fabulous photo, but here's a couple of attempts.