on saturday jack and mommy headed out to the university of maryland to participate in a study in their speech and hearing department. jack was to listen to sound combinations using the letter k -- both those heard commonly in english, such as "kih" (as in kick) or "kee" (as in keep) and combinations known in hebrew or gaelic, but unfamiliar in english. they were testing to see which sounds he attended to longer. and, since both the researcher and mommy had noise-cancelling headphones on (a double-deaf study, i suppose), we don't know how jack did. but we do know that we contributed to the knowledge base for linguistics and speech therapy, so we did our good deed. and we got a free t-shirt!
after the experiment, we were in the ikea neighborhood, so jack and mommy took advantage of the locational efficiency (that's more science talk for ya) and picked up a few things we needed, including some step stools for jack so he can more easily reach the bathroom sinks. and, no visit to ikea is complete without a stop in the swedish marketplace for some ridiculously cheap food. sadly they were out of swedish meatballs, so we had to settle for hotdogs. we just pronounced them "hötdøgs" since we were being scandinavian and all.
if you can't see the slide(.com) show, check out this link to an online album of all the photos!
sunday we headed way out to the creamery that delivers our milk, butter and eggs. they're sort of like the old-fashioned milkman, except you place your order online instead of in the milk box! but we were eager to meet the cows that provide jack with his delicious milk.
we first stopped in one of the main barns where they had a guy playing guitar and singing and all kinds of plastic ride-on toys to use. jack was a little wary at first, and preferred to stick close to the vintage tractor.
after a while, we made our way to a chicken house where some brand new baby chicks had been born overnight. they still had the eggshells from which they'd hatched laying near them. the woman inside asked jack if he wanted to touch the chick, and he shook his head no, repeatedly. but after watching mommy pet the chick, and then hold the chick in her hands, he decided to give it a try with his little index finger. and that's all it took ...
from there on out, he was a little bit like lennie from of mice and men. let's just say we're still learning the concept of "gentle."
after the chicks, jack ran next door into the area where the calves were enclosed. jack looked at them, shouted at them, pointed at them, petted them and even tried to kiss one! he also tried to play in their water and feed buckets, though thankfully daddy was quicker than jack on that one (this time!).
we tried some goat's milk (yummy!) and ate a lunch of pulled pork and pit beef, after which jack played with some trucks and tractors in the gravel next to the picnic tables, contemplated climbing "straw mountain" (which proved to be too everest-like to summit), and did climb up on more tractors.
we skipped the horse-drawn carriage and hay rides, but while mommy went into the shop to buy some ice cream to bring home, jack and daddy went into the milking parlor to watch the big cows get milked. that was quite a sight for jack!
we headed back to the car, with mommy shaking buttermilk into butter on the ride home. and although it was a fun-filled day on the farm for us (almost) city slickers, green acres was not the place to be forever and we were glad to get home and have a nice dinner (including chocolate ice cream!), a warm bath, and a comfy crib.
if you can't see the slide(.com) show, check out this link to an online album of all the photos!
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