January 19, 2012

Cow Pie and the Dairy Farm

This is my dad:


He's a fascinating person. One of my heroes - a truly amazing human being. He has many layers. That man is a bundle of surprises. Perhaps I'll do a blog post about him one day.

Well, one evening when Sadie was a little tyke she kept running around the house shouting, "Cow Pa, Cow Pa, Cow Pa." Ben and I both thought she was saying, "Cow Pie."  Not the best thing to run around the house shouting, but she was a late talker so we encouraged her and helped her clarify the words and pronounce more clearly cow pie instead of cow pa.  Sometimes you just have to go with kids' interests, right?  Well, a few days later we were at my parents house and she started shouting again, although this time more clearly, "Cow Pie".  Then we realized.  Duh!  She was trying to say Grandpa.  Oops!  So, we tried correcting the problem but to no avail. Still to this day she calls my dad Cow Pie. We think of it as a term of endearment -  one of her first words that she worked long and hard to say clearly.  Although, we do get strange looks when she calls him Cow Pie in public.

Anyways, we received an email a few weeks ago from my parents saying they wanted to take the three oldest grand kids to a Dairy Farm.  Do you find it ironic that Cow Pie wanted to take them to a Dairy Farm where there happen to be many actual 'cow pies'.  He must subconsciously like his name, don't you think?

My mom was sick the day of the outing so Joseph filled in for her.  So the three Josephs, Ethan, and Sadie went on down to Sarasota for a day of cow pie fun.

She started crying when they first arrived and said she wanted to go home.
My dad carried her for 15 minutes and then she calmed down.  What a guy!

Playing in the hay maze




She actually does have a strong love for livestock.  


My dad looked pretty weathered by the time he brought Sadie home. We asked him how it went and he said, "I think they may have been a little young for it still."  Poor guy!

I think she had fun even though she was scared of the hay ride and cable cars. Care to guess what she talks about when we ask her about that day?  Two things - how fun it was to ride in my parents' high tech van and eating chicken and fries on the drive home. Great.

3 comments:

Joe said...

Eat more chicken. Mooooooo.

meyersmp said...

Ethan looked like a dirty rag-a-muffin when he came home, which can only mean he had the time of his life. He absolutely loved it. When he saw these pictures he asked if we were going again with Cow pie and Joe. His favorite part was playing in the sand pit with the dump trucks. :)

Mary said...

At least they didn't bring any extra cow pies home with them!