Heaven on Earth

On Saturday, Baba, Zippy, and myself headed out to my grandparent's farm. Baba was in heaven. Almost all of his favorite things are on the farm: cows (moos!), tractors (putt-putts), and cats ('ilis). All that we were missing was his other obsession, trains.

Baba and I spent almost the entire day outside. He tried to befriend some cats, but they kept running away from him.

It always makes me laugh that he is so surprised that the small, defenseless farm cats run away from him (okay, okay, I know that farm cats aren't defenseless - I have a couple scars on my arms to prove it). I tried to explain the difference between domesticated and ferrel cats, but he didn't seem to get it.

He did get to drive, with his great-grandpa's help, a bobcat, a four-wheeler, and a putt-putt.
He has driven 3 different brands of tractors, John Deere (Zippy's dad is a John Deere man), Oliver (his great-grandpa loves Olivers), and White (interesting tractor history side-note: at some point in history Oliver became White, so I guess, technically, Oliver and White are sort of the same brand, but still, 3 different brands of tractors before the age of 2? How many people can claim that?).
This trip to the farm he was not scared of the cows at all. He befriend a calf, who tried to suck the mittens off of Baba's hands (calves, like baby's have a strong need to suck and will suck anything that comes close to them, hands, milk replacer, mittens, what have you). He also enjoyed "sneaking" up on the cows in their pens and saying "boo!" He thought scaring the cows was hilarious.

And, thankfully, before the end of the day, he befriended a cat. This cat, who for some reason followed Baba everywhere, was probably insane. Encouraged by his kitty shadow, Baba walked around the farm telling the 'ili about the farm. He'd say, " 'ili moo!" and point to the cows. Or " 'ili putt-putt" and point to the tractor.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that this 'ili had grown up on the farm and had probably seen all the moos and putt-putts before. When he got too far ahead of his new friend, he would stop, turn around, and say " 'ili go!"