A Post of Its Own

Our Arboretum petting zoo experience deserves a post of its own. Watch this story as it unfolds:

We arrived at the petting zoo area, a little fenced in arena with quite a few goats, one fluffy sheep, several chickens and one pitiful donkey. All the big kids darted right in, leaving us Mommies with the one year old crew. Will and Evan were very content just to watch their siblings romp around. No-nos, however, who likes to think he is 14, wanted DOWN! So I propped him up against the fence to watch the activity.

The bigger kids were having a great time grooming the goats.

Can you gather from the look on his face that something is just not sitting right with Noah? I couldn't figure out what was bothering him. And then...
...glory be! The fluffy sheep ambled over to our part of the fence. Noah went crazy with happiness: giggling, patting the sheep, huge smiles, lots of jibber-jabber words. Now I get it! Noah wanted to be in the petting zoo, not just watching the petting zoo.

So I scooped him up and ventured in. This is the face he made when I set him down inside the fence. Pure joy!

Right away he started signing "help." He wanted to dive right in and pat some animals. (I was so busy trying to help us avoid goat poop that I didn't have much time for patting.)

Owie is a pro at brushing goats. Noah watched him for awhile and decided that he was missing out.

He toddled his chubby little legs right over to the bucket of brushes, helped himself and chased down a goat! The Boy with no fear started brushing away!

I don't know if you can see his expression very clearly, but Scooter was so proud of himself and having the time of his life!

Lesson learned: Noah is just not the observing type. If there is action to be had, he wants to be involved! I'll remember that for next time!