These guys will not leave each other alone - talk about male bonding! And did he but know it, today is Gus's last day as a young buckling. Tomorrow, he joins his uncles in the world of "wetherdom". I feel very sad about it, but I think it's very important for the family tree to have as many branches as possible. Yet another reason why I am hoping to relocate the ranch to some real acreage!
Trixie: "Gussy, you're still not looking!"
Feeling as though I was sadly lacking in posts and pictures, I decided to do a blog-a-thon yesterday. The babies are growing so fast and getting them to stand still for a picture is just next to impossible. In fact, I have no idea how I got this picture. It's as if Twister told them they had to be sweet and stand still for a couple of pictures.
Trixie and Gus playing king (or queen) of the slide. Trixie is winning this round.
Here is Alex with Gus on day number two. We were, of course, marveling at the miracle of his and Trixie's birth and their unbelievable cuteness! At two days old, the kids are wanting to snuggle with you and they love to get right in your face and let you just smother them with hugs and kisses. Now at roughly a month old, they 're about 6 in human years. They will tolerate being hugged for a few seconds, but they really want to run around and play, NEVER running out of energy and in Gussy's case, already interested in the opposite sex. Just like his dad.........sigh....the apple never falls far from the tree.
My older apple hasn't fallen far from the tree either. Alex loves the goats, especially the babies and just like me, he watches their growth and progress with total amazement. It feels good to have a kindred spirit in my son if only part of the time. There other times where it would seem that not only is he not a kindred spirit, but he is completely possessed by that who name we will not mention. This has not been a banner school year for us, but he has been fairly constant in reading and not just Alex Rider novels either, so I guess we'll be okay. Once I read an interview with Valerie Bendt about the value of reading good books to your children. If you want to read this article click here : http://www.elijahcompany.com/help/ejournal/ejjan2704.htm
I like to read this article from time to time because it makes feel like I'm doing at least something right. My kids love books so reading is generally part of our day no matter what happens. Books are always with us wherever we're going. Better to be safe than to be sitting ina doctor's office, waiting without a book to read to my 4 year old daughter - a fate worse than death, if you ask me. Cynthia Rylant and Marc Brown have saved the day more than once! Alex won't leave the house without a book - what's he been reading? Scorpio by Anthony Horowitz. Obviously, I could talk about books and reading all day long, but I'm going to save it for another post, so be sure to come back later. Thank for reading.
These are the babies for which the Van Goat Ranch has been waiting. I'm not sure how much tragedy and sadness this blog can manage, so for the moment I'll just say that Trixie and Gus weren't the first babies we were waiting for, but they were the first to stay................and their arrival was worth every minute of the wait. Trixie, also known as Little Bag of Tricks, looks like her daddy (Vincent) but her personality is all her own. Augustus, mostly known as Gus, Gussy and GusGus, looks like his mommy(Twister), but he too has created his own niche in the Van Goat family. What they have in common with each other is that every single thing they do is just absolutely the cutest thing you've ever seen , it is necessary to kiss both of them several times a day, and they grow waaaay too fast. My sister recently told me that the way I was talking to one of the goats was sickening it was so sweet and for pete's sake I never even talked to my daughter like that, to which I replied , "Well, she's not a goat." I mean, you want your children to grow into adults, and wonderful though they are, my goats are never going to speak to me in English or any other language other than "Caprinese", so why should I talk to them like they're humans. Besides, they get extra points for not talking back to me like my 16 year old son does.
