9.21.08
The Cows were a success
The weekend has been very good thus far.
Yesterday, I spent most of the day with my MIL and while, quite honestly, I was a little concerned when she volunteered to watch Alena while I took Leila to the pool at one for a half an hour and said that she'd be arriving at ten thirty and maybe staying til supper. But it worked out great. She had a good visit with the girls and while Leila was eating lunch, told her that she was "excited to see Leila's swimming lessons" and Leila took that idea and ran with it taking about "Nanny REALLY cited!! Watch me swim!" for the rest of the day. She did awesome in her swimming lessons and wasn't scared at all. After that we came home and Leila had a rest before we went to the ball field and watched one of her uncles. And Leila had fun running around with her other uncle and cheering (seriously, this girl *loves* sports) and I sat in a chair and bounced a bored Alena on my knee.
This morning we went to the base gym fairly early and borrowed a double stroller and went for an hour long walk on the Trans Canada Trail. Milo's been shack-whacky and it was the easiest way I could think of to burn the morning, while getting Alena to nap, letting Milo run and keeping Leila occupied. Came home, had some lunch and a nap, drove to our friends and went to the Dairy Farm, which was a HUGE success (and oh... all those engorged udders... I felt for those cows) stayed for supper at their house and came home to a late bedtime and two sleepy kids, a skipped bath and a big sigh once everyone was tucked in.
There was a cow at the farm who was in a pen (cage? I don't know what they're called) by herself whom a little girl told us was "having a baby really soon." Anyway, the cow laboured while we were there, and we kind of lingered hoping to see the calf being born, but no luck. One of the women who worked at the farm told us that the cow lifted her tail and sort of rocked back and forth through her contractions, since, as the woman put it, "the cow didn't know what they were." And I thought, like hell she doesn't know what those contractions are. I doubt there is a female mammal who doesn't know exactly what is happening as she goes through labour. Anyway, I felt this silly connection with that cow, imagining the contractions as they passed. It all boils down to a common thread, childbirth.
There's this whole entry on women and feminism and equality brewing in my head that I really should have written last night, but Alena is awake and not wanting to settle and I want to go read my book in bed soon, so I have to go. More on cows and childbirth and feminism another day.
wunderwuman at 8:36 p.m.