Hi Lovelies! Today I’m sharing another installment of my Love Mama series. Love Mama is inspired by my journal entries as a new mom. I hope they inspire you to slow down and stay present where ever you are and experience and appreciate every little moment.
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As a stay at home mom, it’s really important to me that neither I nor my daughter get into a rut. A consistent routine is super vital and it has helped us tremendously, but everyone needs a little variety and excitement in their lives. I’ve been working pretty hard to find new experiences for us to enjoy; activities that will open her mind to the world and test her growing skills. We’ve been having some pretty awesome adventures!
Lately, my baby bear has been really into learning about farm animals and mimicking their sounds. Everyday is filled with moos and quacks. I’m striving to make our home a learning environment inspired by the Montessori school of child learning. We have a shelf with three activities relevant to what she is interested in at the time. One of her favorite activities has been completing this adorable wooden animal puzzle by Melissa & Doug. It became clear to me that she’d become very good at recognizing, matching, and mimicking the animal sounds. A farm discovery was the perfect new adventure to give her some real world application.
We visited a small family farm in Tallahassee, FL run by a lovely large family of adopted children. We first visited the petting area filled with fluffy rabbits, running chickens, lambs, goats, and her favorite — ducks.
Lauren at first stood wide-eyed, allowing all the animals to approach her. After walking her around a bit she eventually spotted the ducks and chased them yelling “QUACK QUACK!” From there she was all about checking out all the animals.
One of the children who lives on and helps to run the farm caught one of my baby bear’s favorite ducks for her to get a closer look
She made a new friend in a calm colorful pony.
She made a new friend in a sweet lamb and even petted her a few times.
Getting a closer look with her new friend at a noisy rooster.
The farm hosted several activities like riding a pony and creative photo opportunities with donkeys. We tried to give her the experience of a donkey carriage ride and well, despite having her cousin there she wasn’t too excited about that, HA!
My baby bear wasn’t having it lol!
Baby Bear was a lot more interested in exploring the rest of the animals on the farm. She discovered a sleeping kitten; waking it with a loud “MEEEEOOOW!” She was startled by mooing cows and was even licked by an alpaca — she didn’t appreciate that!
By far her favorite experience was checking out the pigs and she even chasing a small brown little piglet around the farm yelling “MEH MEH” — she hasn’t worked out the oink sound just yet.
I’m so happy that I could give her this experience and that we could create this memory together. Seeing her experience things for the first time is one of the most magical things about being a mom. It reminds me that there is always something new to discover and making life an adventure is a big part of embracing life itself as a gift.
Shout out to the alpaca Patches for photo-bombing all the selfies lol!
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