Truth Be Told: I once had a camel in a headlock

Here's where not keeping up with the blog gets you. I'm forced to get back into my readers good graces by finally fessing up to a little-known secret.

I once had a camel in a headlock.

About a month ago, I was chaperoning my son and a buddy of his at a "petting zoo".



(That's my boy on the left.)

We were in the paddock sitting on the tractor-trailer on our way out into the reserve area where they kept the bigger animals. There were a couple of camels who knowingly waited at the fence for the inner gate to open before they started nosing for food. Since I was sitting toward the front of the trailer (the raised bed was the perfect height for a camel) they hit us up first.

I had Finn on my left and my boy on my right just next to the railing. Turtle had no interest in going first, so I was encouraging my other charge to feed the camel from his Dixie cup. With a sharp shreik, I looked up to see this camel with my son's laminated name tag firmly in its mouth. It was pulling him closer to the rail despite all the noise. I quickly broke the string and tried to console my kid. After checking the other boy, I looked up to see this camel happily munching away on this 6"x9" piece of plastic like a flat cud.

Many of my readers will know that I had a former career working with animals.

I had maybe ten seconds before that idiot camel decided to swallow and get a large piece of plastic stuck in its throat. After I realized what the vet might say..."Aah! Here's the problem! it was a large piece of plastic from Maury Elementary. There's a name at the bottom..." I quickly took action. Jumping up, I put this camel in a headlock under my right arm. I then used both hands to reach around his mouth and try to grab the plastic. After pulling up his big lips, I managed to grap hold between bites and slip it forward out of his mouth.

While consoling one frightened Turtle, I looked up at the mother who was sitting next to me (not so closely this time, I noticed). She called me crazy so I told her that I wasn't going to take that from some camel.

Hopefully, it earned the Turtle a little respect at school.

Busy Weekend pt. 2

We continued our busy, busy weekend with a few more activities. On Sunday, we hit Butler's Orchard with the boys. Last fall, Beta spent most of the time on my back in a kid carrier. This time, he was racing all around with his big brother. We scored three pumpkins and a half bushel of apples destined to be many pints of applesauce. Just like last year, we also took a ride on the cool bus!



On Columbus Day, TurtleMama had to work. I decided to take the boys to a new park. In all the parks we've visited, I have never been to such an awesome toddler playground. It was all I could do to keep them close enough to each other to effectively play single parent zone defense.



We even took a ride on the carousel. The boys had a lot of fun!

A-do

Beta is creating his own language. He is adding a-do to the end of favorite items. So it is not just a bike, but a bike-a-do and not just cake, but cake-a-do. I think he may be saying "I do" as in bike, yea I want to do that or cake, yes please. He is certainly pairing many other words together including today "No mommy, I want daddy" when he wanted to hold his dad's hand walking across the street instead of mine. We have a very full and very fun weekend starting with Happy Hour here Friday night, a Birthday party and National Festival of Building at the Building Museum today and a planned trip tomorrow to the pumpkin patch - Butler's Orchard. It is phenomenal weather for all these events too, yea for fall.

Banana!

Beta's language has just taken off as of late, which is huge fun! Here is a clip of one of his favorite food items and songs. He is hard to keep up with in the dancing and bike riding domains as well. Now he is a talking guy on the go.

Soccer mom

And so it begins......organized sports for my boys......Is he not the cutest?
He loved it! Just look at that focus on the ball, and the nap after the drill work was awesome.

Labor Day 2008

We went to Vermont to visit Diane's side of the family over Labor Day. It was a blast. We got to go to Shelburne Farms one day to see the Farm Animals, then had a live performance for Erica's Birthday from Uncle Jom's Band. Sunday, we went to the state fair and got to see more animals, ride some rides, and eat fair food! Monday we had a picnic at Shelburne beach on Lake Champlain. We had beautiful weather and lots of fun with the siblings, cousins and grandparents. Can't wait to get together again soon. See the following link for pics http://homepage.mac.com/scott.douglas/PhotoAlbum17.html

First Day of School

Turtle has started Elementary School. He is in the 3 year old Spanish program at Maury Elementary School. He was very excited as you can see, and proud with his backpack and lunch box - Thank you Aunt Donna - Diego is so perfect since he is doing the Spanish Immersion class.
We are just 3 blocks from the school, so we plan on walking to pick him up/drop him off.

He has to wear a uniform - navy bottom, and white shirt.

He has an enthusiastic teacher, who does lots of singing, which Turtle loves.

We hope it will be a fun year for our growing guy!