It has been an awful long time since I wrote anything here and I am sorry for that, but I've just been so busy----when will it all end?!! Kim and Oliver and Liam got here the day after Mothers Day and since then we've been working like crazy to make the little Stanley Street house ready for them. We'd quit working on it at all because we decided to focus on our place and make it livable, but of course that meant that now, almost everything needed to be done at Stanley Street. So busy, busy, busy. At some point I will put on some photos of that place too because the change has been dramatic there let me tell you.
So Kim and Oliver got here, their trip was pretty uneventful except I think they did sleep one night in their van. I guess Oliver likes to drive long spells and when he finally got pooped they weren't near a motel, so they just tucked themselves into their seats for the night. Must have been tough, all day in the van and now the night and then the next day. Yechh. But they got here and having them stay with us has been nice. And Liam has had the chance to get to know his grandma and grandpa gradually and easily. For the first four or five days, we didn't even touch him, just said his name lots and played peek-a-boo for a moment or two over and over. He would always "hide" behind his hand initially. And gradually he started looking back at us, although still from behind his hand. Then one day, when Kim had to go out of the room for a second and he started whining, I scooped him up, quickly threw a sweater around him and we headed right out the door to go look at the horses. He hardly had a second to think about what was happening before he was distracted by Ambra and Sierra. So we stayed there for about five minutes and then came back in and from that moment on you could see him beginning to thaw. And now he smiles at us and is happy to come into the kitchen (without his mommy or daddy) and shows us things.
You can see by the photos, that he is a big boy (or maybe I'm just smaller than I thought?). Kim said the last time they weighed him he was about 31 pounds (at 15 months) and that was about a month ago. His head is as big as Kims. Kim was a little, skinny baby so this size comes from his father that's for sure. Now that he's comfortable with us, it is easy to see how lucky Kim and Oliver are as parents because Liam is a sweet, happy little boy and very affectionate. It's so nice to be able to get to know him this way and it will be fun to watch him as he grows up. I think that he might grow up and be very chatty because he chatters away like he's having the most important conversation. It is very cute.
While Oliver will be going off to work in town on the house, Don and I are going to get busy and do some work on my barn. We've lost the last sawdust supplier in this region (owner of the mill died and family shut the business down) so I have to re-think my stall situation for Ambra and Sierra. I have two small box stalls and while Ambra's isn't too bad because she is smaller, Sierra's becomes a cesspool, because she paces in it, scattering the mess overall. So I've decided to remake the stalls into two largish standing stalls so the mess is only at the business end. It's not ideal, but if I am going to have to buy sawdust in bales during the winter, then this will use less. I will be putting rubber mats down too so that they can lay on them comfortably. And in short order we'll be in fly-season full throttle so I may be stabling them during the middle of the day to keep them away from the flies. So that is my plan for the day. And now I'm done, but I'm thinking about all of you each and every day. Love to you all.
