corn on the cob + other firsts

It makes me kind of sad, but we don't seem to be having a lot of "firsts" around here lately with Alea. She's at a stage in her life where she knows how to do A LOT, say A LOT, and make us laugh A LOT, A LOT. But she's already been through all of her first holidays, taken her first steps, had her first trip to the Mall of America, and all that jazz. So, when she begged Cory for a bite of his corn on the cob and then requested her very own cob, I couldn't help but snap a couple pictures.



When you've got a picky toddler on your hands, the fact that she's eating anything is reason to celebrate!


Alea also decided to try her hand at swinging on the big-kid swing at the park the other day. If we weren't in a public place I might have burst out in tears. not-even-kidding. I'm going to start crying thinking about it now. It's not that I'm not happy or proud of her, but it's the fact that each little step up she takes is one step further away from needing my help. Soon she's going to be slamming her bedroom door screaming that she hates me, so I'm just trying to hang onto every little moment with this precious little girl before she decides that I'm that embarrassing mom who's trying to ruin her life. You know?

Now for the kicker. If you read Maggie's blog then you already know what I'm about to tell you. But if you don't... you're in for a treat.

Yes, that is a miniature horse. Yes that is a miniature horse galloping towards me in pure fear. And yes I was scared this little thing was going to trample over me, but not scared enough to not grab my iPhone and take a picture or 3 because I knew I just HAD to blog about this. Yes my friends. I risked getting barrelled over by a miniature horse. Just for you.

The other day on our way home from the beach, a trip that didn't last long because it started to rain while it was still sunny and which I of course immediately deemed "Sunny with a Chance of Sprinkles," we stumbled upon a miniature horse running around the highway. Nothing out of the ordinary right? Well, Maggie's a huge fan of horses. You can just call her "the horse whisperer." Me on the other hand, I love animals but the fact that cute little chimps can snap at any moment and rip your face off, well that kind of freaks me out and turns me off to a LOT of animals. Back to my story. Three other people had stopped before us and were trying to somehow catch this horse. The poor thing was scared out of it's mind. We finally managed to coax it over to the side of the road and started to pull up grass to feed it and calm it down while someone got a hold of it's main. My heart broke into a million pieces when one of the guys told us it really shouldn't even be living where it is. I guess it's owners don't take very good care of it. But we were just happy we were able to catch it and save it from potentially getting hit on a somewhat busy highway.

But seriously, just picture 5 grown adults trying to catch a miniature horse while our kids in two vehicles cheered us on. With Maggie & I, there's never a dull moment!