More Pony!

March 26, 2014

Here's some more pictures from Xander's last farm class and first pony ride...

Dada and Xander watched and listened (at times patiently) while our instructor explained how we were to pet and brush the pony and then while the kids took turns riding Mr. Winchester the other kids would be moving buckets of shavings into the pony's stable so he'd have a nice place to sleep when he was done with his rides.

It took a while for him to get into it, but eventually Xander showed interest in the shavings.  But not to fill buckets with, not to even carry the empty bucket around (which we thought he would do, due to his love of buckets) but to run back and forth shuffling his feet getting shavings to fly around.  That was hilarious!  (He's also discovered that he loves doing this with loose gravel... super cheap entertainment for future reference.)

Haha!  See!  HILARIOUS!  Every photo of him doing this activity is fuzzy because he got so excited and moved so fast!

Then it was time for Xander's very own pony ride!  As our previous post stated, he didn't take to it right away, but when he got going he loved it.  Check out the smiles on his and Dada's faces!

Mama loved how Xander left his hood on, but held it in his hand like he was tipping his cowboy hat.  Howdy Partner!

Still having a great time...

... and tipping his "hat"...

Then it was Mama's turn to make sure Xander stayed on the pony while Dada took some photos.  Very nice of Dada :)

We all laughed and smiled so much!  Everyone loved the pony ride!

More smiles...

... and more smiles!...

coming around the last corner... sadly the ride is almost over now...

... but we're still loving it!

Mama and Dada are going to look into finding other opportunities for Xander to get to ride a pony.  Who knows, maybe he's a little cowboy in the making!

It's Pony Time!

March 27, 2014

Xander got to participate in a little farmers class this March.  His first class taught him about goats, then pigs, bunnies and at the last class, horses.  Xander didn't love the class all the way through each time, but we made the best of it.  Dada took Xander to the classes and Mama was able to tag along for the last three classes.

By far, the best part of all four classes was the pony ride at the end.  We had been concerned that Xander would not take to the pony ride based on his personality, and how horribly Dada reacted during his own first pony ride at a similar age.  Luckily the pony was being handled by an incredible woman who knew the best way to handle all parties involved for the best result.  She had a feeling that Xander was going to love the ride and despite our suspicions she turned out to be absolutely right!

At first he was a little scared to get onto the pony and have to sit on the pony alone - he tried to slip off back into Dada's arms.  But the pony handler knew that if we could get him to stay on long enough for the pony to start moving, the motion of the pony ride itself might just be fun enough for Xander to hang on.  And she was right!

Here is a short clip of Xander on his first pony ride.  He laughed and smiled almost the whole time.  Mada and Dama said this was possibly our best experience together as a family thus far - seeing pure joy in an unexpected situation like this was simply priceless!