What do you want to be when you grow up?

An artist??

An appliance repairman?

A Sculptor?

 

 

A Builder?

An Engineer? (for which you need to be ON the train)....

A Farmer?

A Fireman?

A Zookeeper?

Lead singer in a Rock Band??

So many options to explore! And I promise, as your Mommy, to continue to let you explore your options. And I want to apologize for waiting TWO LONG YEARS to introduce you to the joy that is Play Doh.

"Cake?!" he excitedly exclaimed. Sorry, baby, not cake...but just as fun! 

His first Play Doh worm.

"What else can we build, yo?"

"Here, Mommy, build something with this yellow ball"

"I like Play Doh"

Look at the concentration.

Ah, the first sniff of Play Doh. Childhood defined.

Happy Cow!!

Last week Max and I went to the Happy Cow Creamery with a group of Moms and kiddos from Julie's church. We had been to Happy Cow before, and Max had loved looking at the cows so I was really excited that this time we were going to get an actual tour of the facility. Being a farm girl at heart, this kind of stuff really appeals to me as much as it does to Max, let's be honest. And I'm so thrilled that he seems to (so far) share my love of animals.

Max and a bunch of pregnant cows. Including the one holding him.

 

Max was really excited to go (anywhere really) with Nathanael and Julie. So we got to the farm and spent a few minutes checking out the cows by the parking lot before our tour.

Then we all "herded" onto the tractor-pulled wagon. (ha, get it?)

 

Max loved the tractor, of course, but as I suspected, he was ready to disembark from our ride within moments of pulling away from the parking lot. Standing still ain't exactly his fortay.

Regardless, I enjoyed the tour provided by our tour guide, who lives on the farm. She explained to us that those cows that we so enjoy looking at each time we visit are actually the "dry cows" or, in other words, the cows that aren't currently being milked because they are pregnant. In fact, one of them had had a baby overnight before we got there. Supposedly the calf was out in the field when we got there, but I somehow missed it.

I was hoping that we would be riding in the fields amongst the "Happy Cows" but for some (ahem, sexist) reason, the farmer didn't think that our tour guide would be able to drive the tractor through the fields the cows were in without getting stuck. So we ambled along through an empty field and were just able to glimpse the herd of cows from a couple of fields away through some trees. They did look happy, though.

See the cows through those trees?

 She explained to us that in the beginnings of this farm, Farmer Tom (the owner) had kept all of his cows on concrete but that he had learned over time that the cows would produce much more milk if kept in fields, out in the sunshine (duh).

 An interesting fact that I learned was that the cows end up carrying about 70 lbs of milk in their udders before they amble on up to the milking shed (of their own volition, and no wonder!!).  This tour was taking me back to my pre-vet studies at Clemson and I have to say that I was enjoying the smell of cow manure in the morning. Someone (Nathanael) was not enjoying it as much:

So we soon were back at the parking area where we were escorted into the milking barn and Ashley, the tour guide, explained a bit about the milking procedures. She explained that hand milking takes 45 minutes per cow while the machinery they have can get the job done in about 4 minutes per cow. That's about all I heard because by that point Max had reached the end of his attention span, which is also, coincidentally, about 4 minutes.

After a quick little talk by Farmer Tom (again, most of which I did not hear because I was trying to keep Max from running out to pasture), we got to eat some Happy Cow ice cream. Ok, this was up for debate because the ice cream containers had labels from some other farm (in WISCONSIN) on them; but one of the girls apparently asked Ashely about it and she claimed that it was, in fact, Happy Cow ice cream. I'll choose to believe her.

After Max had inhaled his ice cream, he was back over at the cows again. Man he loves those Happy Cows. He refuses to get close to them or to touch them, but he would gladly just stand in front of them for the entire day, pointing at them and telling me that they are "Happy Cows" in the darn cutest little voice.

Somehow by the end of our visit, my kid was the only one covered head to toe in both ice cream AND cow poop,

 but he sure did have a great time. So great, in fact, that he spent the entire ride home wailing pitifully "Happy Cows" over and over and over....

and he continued talking incessantly about the Happy Cows until Chris and I relented and took him back again on Saturday. And he cried AGAIN when we left.

Coach and the girls.

Giving the girls some pointers

Need a Vacation? We've got the Kure (Kure Beach, NC Vacation)

A few weeks ago we took a much-anticipated (at least by me and Max) beach vacation to Kure Beach, NC. Even better, Ben, Les, and Benny came (constant playmate for Max? check!) and so did Mimi and PopPop (oh, and let's not forget Lucy and Bailey).

Bailey did great on the 5 hour car trip. Max did remarkably well also...yes, those are his pants under Bailey's face.

 I will admit that I was hoping that Max might have calmed just a tad since our last beach vacation, which we spent taking turns chasing him up and down the beach with very little relaxing. The first day on the beach, it actually looked promising that this might be the case. Max was extremely excited about "crabs", "o-cean", and digging in the sand with Benny and did manage to (somewhat) stay in one spot for a while. Also, the slightly overcast weather combined with the fact that school had already started back made for a wonderfully non-crowded beach...much easier to watch a wild child without lots of people around!!

 

Yes, that is Chris in the background...fishing.

As always, our little dare-devil was looking for adventure. On a casual "beach walk" with Mimi, Pop Pop, and Benny, Max managed to create his own excitement by leaping into every "hole" he came across. What he doesn't stop to consider is the fact that, contrary to what he thinks, he really doesn't know how to swim. Thank goodness Pop Pop is hyper-vigilant! See if you can follow the chain of events as they happened below:

Ok, I'll help you. Going for a walk with Mimi and Pop Pop; Leaping into a hole and becoming submerged completely underneath the water; leaving PopPop for dry land; Being taken in by the much more cautious Mimi.

I had delusions of managing to get some cute family photos at the beach. What was I thinking? First of all, I somehow managed to come down with the worst cold I've had in YEARS while we were there, so I looked like a puffy, squint eyed weirdo; and secondly, Max had NO interest in taking pictures with the sick weirdo and the unshaved fisherman. For our situation, this one isn't too bad (thanks for your patience, Les!) I mean, a smile from Max would be asking too much; the fact that he's actually looking at the camera is impressive in itself.

Kure Beach, NC is a cute little town. While the house we stayed in was really nice and totally modern, the majority of the hotels and restaurants, etc look like they haven't been updated since the 80s. I happen to find that charming - for example, one of the hotels near the house was called "The Salty Hammocks." Hilarious. Ben and PopPop spent at LEAST a half an hour exploring the Civil War Fort in town, Fort Fisher. And we even managed to tour the Fort Fisher Aquarium on a rainy afternoon.

We also enjoyed an afternoon exploring the Riverwalk in Wilmington, NC. I would have actually loved to spend a day exploring Wilmington (and not just because one of my favorite shows, One Tree Hill filmed all over town) but I think the other members of our party weren't as into it.(Ok, but here is the location of one of the key spots in One Tree Hill; the Rivercourt. There used to be a basketball court to the left of this battleship where that covered area is. Not that anyone cares except for me).

 It was slightly hot as we walked along; but it sure was pretty. And the Ludwigs can't pass up an opportunity for a good family photo. Let's try this again!

Not a bad attempt; minus the closed eyes. But Pop Pop as photographer only has patience for one shot.

Note to self: this is NOT a flattering maternity top.

Yeah, par for the course. I call this: Anatomy of a Family Portrait:

And Chris calls this next one: Fun Times With Fatty:

So finally we got a decent family portrait. Nevermind that someone is missing.

Here he is; just pretend that he's present above.

But mostly, we just enjoyed playing on the mostly empty beach and in the pool at the house. By the second or third day Max had resumed his running wildman routine...but he sure did sleep great at night. I had worried about him sleeping alone in a strange room, but he actually slept much better there than he did in the week before we left for the beach at home. (In fact, better than he has slept in the weeks since too, for that matter).

 

 

 

 

Max discovered a new calling - Bird Whisperer. He heard that seagulls like to eat fish....he just didn't really understand that goldfish aren't exactly the same thing. The birds were happy with his scraps, though.

And Chris discovered, perhaps, that fishing isn't his true calling...or did he?

I love this picture. There are so many possible captions. But I'm not going to use any of them.

I think the boys really enjoyed their cousin bonding time, and got along remarkably well the whole time for two toddlers. I was hoping that maybe Ben's laid back nature would rub off on Max a little bit, but I think actually Max had Ben running wild amongst the dunes with him by the end of the week.

All-in-all, a fun trip. And I've just had to come to the realization that vacations from now on will NOT involve leisurely reading endless books and relaxing, but will be more likely to include running at top speed and wrestling children into submission. So be it. These are memories we're making :) And by the looks of this happy face, we're making some good ones.