for christmas-light-lovers like us, the magical forrest is like our mecca. this was our 4th year going. and i was very excited.
and also prepared.
i caved. i bought one of those "baby-leashes" that everyone is offended by. well...everyone who hasn't ever had a runaway baby.
i hope i'm not a consciously-negligent mother, but i've had a few, er, episodes lately wherein pickles went off for some.....'alone time.' the worst being when she actually left my friend's house in the 7pm moonlite and followed a dog a few blocks west and a few blocks north before we frantically found her. well, technically, the dog's-owner found her first. we found her second.
i tried to find the friendliest looking leash i could: a monkey: that looks like it's hugging her.... i actually was pretty psyched for our nite with our new acquisition. i was sure it was going to make our outings with pickles more....bearable enjoyable.
it was heaven. she could walk, explore, touch, & checkout whatever she fancied. and i, i could turn my head to sneeze if i needed to and my head turned back, there she was! i was so happy i had spent $10 on a hugging monkey. i started dreaming of all the places pickles could go now.
for about 7 minutes.
that's how long it took her to figure out the reason she couldn't escape was directly related to my wrist. and then my wrist took a beating. note to self: time to clip pickles nails. nobody can beat a wrist and scream at the top of her lungs like my pickles i. stewart. and just to remind me of her advanced humiliation skills, she also started turning circles and wrapping the leash around her neck. then letting her body go limp so she sort of just hung there. or on the ground. the only thing more embarrassing than having your baby on a leash, is having your baby with a leash wrapped around her neck hanging from it.
heidi, the omni-patient mom, took over. as usual.
the kids went through a hay-bail maze, twice, rode the train, went miniature golfing and rode the carousel, and hiked through the magical forrest. one of my major-hook-ups in life is that 2 of my sisters reproduced wayyyyy before me. which means they have older kids to do stuff with my little kids. tonite was stewart's turn. he was super-psyched. so he got to run pickles through the hay maze, AND take her on the train. he's an awesome cousin. levi scored a dragon on the carousel. i thought his heart would burst.
waiting in line for the train. pickles doing her impression of a baby james brown. pretty good, eh?
thanks to my crappy lens and the "stay-behind-the-line" rule, this is the best we could get of THE CUTEST PICTURE EVER! a 6foot, 14 year old with a 2foot, 2 year old. what a sweet boy. stewart can't WAIT till next year....
we had a solid 2 hours of christmas merriment before piper completely won the "3-moms-versus-1-baby" competition. even aunt heidi, the "piper-whisperer" was all plum pooped out. note to self: google 'battered moms shelter'...
i was hysterical laughing to this night's description! i love to read what you write! and your pictures are awesome!
Posted by: susan b | January 11, 2011 at 08:53 PM
btw, does that last picture just scream PEEWEE HERMAN, or is it just me?
Posted by: mom | January 08, 2011 at 08:40 PM
i laughed forever about the snowman picture with the mohler/forrest kids in it!! that for sure should have been robyn's Christmas card! too late. lol lol lol
Posted by: mom | January 03, 2011 at 11:55 AM