Crawling and Farm Day

This post is mostly going to be about our city's annual Farm Day celebration, in which farm-like attractions are imported to our urban parks to help us feel in touch with the fall season. But first, Eleanor has big news. She's mobile. That's right! Our little baby is army crawling. To be honest, she still prefers to just roll in random directions until she hits something fun, like a toy or her sister. But, if that doesn't work, she'll haul herself across the floor in a squiggly, wiggly army crawl. What she lacks in speed she makes up for in determination and all around cuteness. Way to go Eleanor!

It actually took her a whole four days to discover

how easy it is to reach the DVDs.

On to farm days! Normally, the only thing farm-like about Cherry Hill Farm is the farmer's market that happens at the park every Sunday. Sure, it has the historic farm house and barn, but they are museums and reception centers now. What fun it was to see the hay bales and animals giving the ol' farm a taste of its glory years.

Adelaide put on her best overalls for the occasion. 

Eleanor dressed in a farm-themed outfit too, but slept

the entire outing, so no pictures. Oops.

Adelaide has overcome the fear of stuffed animals that plagued her the first 18 months or so of her life. But, she's still not too keen on real animals. Oh, she likes them in books and videos well enough. But, an actual pony ride? She was the only kid in line begging, "Please, Nooooo!" So we avoided the ponies and the petting zoo. But, we did manage to talk her up onto the hayride. Adelaide was pretty wary of the horses pulling the wagon, but managed to get through it by gluing herself to Mommy. 

 Boy, was she relieved when it was over!

She's been enjoying the memory of the ride 

more than the actual ride itself. 

We had a great time at the craft table. Adelaide ran into two of her friends from school and they all painted pumpkins together.

Pickin' the perfect pumpkin.

Artists hard at work. 

The girls also had a lot of fun climbing on the hay structures and playing on the playground. Eventually, Maura and Reagan left to go to the petting zoo. We took a walk around the farmer's market instead to sample all the many apple cider offerings.

We've mentioned to family members that aren't local

that occasionally we have trouble with people assuming

Adelaide is much older than she is because of her height.

To help put that in perspective, her buddy Maura on the 

right is a year older than her. See how Adelaide's legs

are resting on the bottom of the next hay bale while Maura's

dangle? We have no idea if Adelaide will always be a

vertical overachiever, but for now we think it's awesome

she can reach high enough to put her own dishes in the kitchen sink.

We had a lot of fun exploring the pseudo-farm. Now all we need is for a few more trees to turn and it will really start to feel like autumn is here.