Friday, July 25, 2008

Boats, Goats & Potatoes

It's been a lovely week on pastoral Vashon island (except for the sleeping). Monkey has fed the goats in the neighborhood most every day, has taken his first (post-baby days) boat ride and dug up a couple of potatoes. All in all . . . an exciting week!
















Boats

Last year Monkey wouldn't even get near a life jacket. We tried all sorts of tricks to entice him. We all got our jackets on and were really insanely excited about them. "Wow, this is the best life jacket ever! It's so fun to wear! Look at the bright colors! Mine is purple and green!" (didn't work). In fact, my parents have a whole bunch they've collected at garage sales so one day we made a big pile on the lawn. He just looked at that pile and sidled waaaay around it (giving it a sideways glance the whole time as if it would pounce on him). He wouldn't go near them. He was afraid of the float toys at the wading pools last year too--so I guess it just wasn't his time. This year, however, he's decided he wants a whale.

Happily, we had a breakthrough this week and he took his first ride with Grandpa and Dad on our second day here. I was amazed (didn't even know it was happening until I saw them out on the water!!! hmmph!) But it was probably best I wasn't involved. It was very spur of the moment as he decided he wanted to go check the crab traps with Grandpa--so they had to take advantage of the opportunity. He gets pretty stoic when he's scared or nervous so was pretty serious about the whole thing. He probably wouldn't have gone through with it if I had been there. So far he's been out four times in the small Lund. This is the same little outboard I learned to drive as a kid. I spent many hours doing crazy figure eights in that boat!

Monkey has decided he doesn't want to go in the "boat with two motors" (my dad's fishing boat). I think he's decided it will be too loud (he has a thing about noises lately). I'm not sure if my dad talked about it having two motors or if he just noticed it and came up with that himself. But he mentions it A LOT. Baby steps.

The other day, we took the boat across the bay over to the old Burton store and got popsicles. This was a historic occasion as my dad did the same thing when he was a child, I did it when I was a kid, and now Monkey has his turn. Grandpa, Grammy, Daddy, Monkey & me all piled into the Lund and putted (so painfully slowly) across to Burton. He picked a green popsicle out of the freezer (his third popsicle ever) and got down to business. Another family came by and the two girls got these crazy huge, rainbow-swirl popsicle monstrosities. It turns out it's called an "Itzakadoozie" by Nestle. Monkey was smitten so we promised him he could have one next time. Two days later we were back and he had not forgotten (although he calls it something like a doozie). He "ate all up" until it was "in my belly!"


















Goats

Almost every day we walk over to a small field and feed two pygmy goats (don't worry, the owners have ok'd it). We bring old bread when we have it and feed them apple leaves, grass and small apples. Monkey giggles each time the goats tickle his fingers with their grabby lips.















Potatoes

Today we stopped by a friend's small farm (or very large garden) and attempted to pick blueberries. We couldn't find too many as the raccoons had been picking the night before. We're hoping for another chance in a few days as many looked soooo close to being perfect. Monkey got to eat a few directly off the bush so he was in heaven. He also got to dig out two potatoes which was very exciting. Who knew you could find potatoes in the ground? OK, well I did but I think he thinks he might find them on the beach too--he's been digging a lot with his new yellow shovel.

1 comment:

Steph said...

I'm so glad he decided to get in the boat.