This is, without a doubt, my favorite time of year (and Mike would want me to mention that it's his too! His too!). I love the cool weather. I love the pretty leaves. I love breaking out my pumpkin muffin recipe. I love love love Autumn. I think that love may have been passed on to my daughter because she's been walking around for the past month saying "The pumpkins are coming!"
This weekend was our city's Fall Festival (of International-ness, remember?), and of course our little family headed downtown to join in the fun. We had to work a couple hours at the Volume One booth, but then we were free to roam the streets. We tracked down some Pronto Pups, took in some polka music, and watched a wool spinning demonstration...all as we made our way to THE reason Eva had come to the festival: the petting zoo.
I'm not sure she knew what a petting zoo was, but she definitely knows what a zoo is, and she's recently decided that she's an animal lover, so she was pumped! We finally arrived (it was at the opposite end from where we parked, naturally), armed ourselves with a bowl full of food and the camera, and set off to pet some animals.
Yeah. I think she touched one little miniature goat with the very tip of her finger. Maybe. She definitely got close. The food, however, was a hit. Except her chosen method of delivering it to the animals was to grab handfuls of food and fling it over the fence in their general direction.
I wasn't really surprised by this. Eva tends to be an "observer" in new situations. It takes her a little while to get used to something before she's comfortable joining in. I have no doubt that if we'd hung out with the animals for 12-14 more hours, she'd have come around to the idea, and probably we would have had to adopt one of the fuzzy chickens. (I asked Mike if we could take one home, and I got a solid "No." But I think if I'd had Eva backing me up, he'd have crumbled.)
I'm telling you all this to put into perspective exactly what a big deal THIS is:
That, my friends, is a picture of a girl who wouldn't stick out a finger to touch a fuzzy little cow RIDING A PONY!
I couldn't believe it. I casually suggested that maybe she might want to go over and look at the ponies with me, and maybe she might even think about possibly considering riding one? Maybe? She looked at me with big eyes and said YES! Then she ran over to the fence, pointed to a beautiful little white pony, and said "That one, Mama!"
We had to wait in line for a while, and she watched that white pony the whole time, reminding me over and over which one she wanted to ride. I kept smiling, but with gritted teeth, because I was pretty sure I was about to hand over $3 so Eva could walk up to the pony and decide she didn't want to ride after all.
But that never happened. Instead, I handed over $3, and my little girl walked right over to the pony she wanted to ride, stuck her finger in his nostril (he was an understanding pony), and then gently patted his soft, soft nose. I lifted her up into the saddle and showed her where to hold on while Mike snapped about a gazillion pictures.
And then we walked. Around and around and around. And Eva rode the whole way in silence, with just a little smile on her face. When we stopped, I put her down on the ground, and she walked back up to the pony's nose, gave him a little pat, and said "Thank you horsey."
(Look! She's riding all by herself!)
