all about babies and horses

Almost every day Cristiana asks me, “When are you going to the hospital to get the baby, Mama?“ Or, “Is the baby going to get out of your belly today, Mama?” Or, “Will you be this big tomorrow, Mama? And then get the baby?” (showing me how big my belly will be when the baby is born). She is so excited, and that is exciting for us. If you ask her if she wants a brother or sister, she’ll tell you that she wants both.

We told her the other evening that she is going to need to help with the baby when he or she is born. She said, “Yeah, I will help keep the baby away from my books and keep little things out of its mouth.” She talks about how she will hold the baby and when he starts to cry she will give him to me.

Almost daily she also asks, “Are we going for horse back riding lessons today, Mama?”. She has had so much fun with riding. This last week we increased our time from a half hour to one full hour, and she really enjoyed it. Afterward I asked her if it was a long enough ride, she said, “No, can we go back for more?”

Her teacher told me the other day that she seems to have riding in her blood. I just said, “Well, yeah, she does!” without going into the whole story of Rod growing up on them and me always wanting to ride every chance I could get! She DOES have it in her blood -- and it doesn’t hurt that we have the access here to teach her too! :-) (We are VERY thankful for that.)

She is also very interested in learning all about the horses, their colorings, the ways their ears tell you their attitude, the names of body parts, etc.

Last week she rode bareback for the first time. Poor thing, her bum is so bony and NOT padded that she cried because it hurt. We got her back on her horse after I told her that she was Indian on Spirit, just like the movie. Then she enjoyed it when she was just walking with her horse -- she did not like the trotting while bare back. So, this week we made sure she had thicker jeans on! :-)

This week she decided that she really did NOT like the trotting so much. She wanted off. I got her down off of Nunki, her pony, and let her walk around with the pony for a bit. She so loves horses, but she really does NOT like trotting. She really has not figured out the rhythm to it all yet, but she will. I was able to get her back on Nunki, and they just rode out on the back roads for the second half hour. It was so worth it for her, as she did not give up.

Here are a few photos of her on Nunki from this week. Notice that Richard, the trainer, is not leading Nunki at all. They learned how to steer and stop with the reins. Now, granted, Nunki knows to follow Richard, but the kids are still learning the use of the reins. It is so much fun to watch them learn!







And, here she is after her walk. They were to look for flowers to adorn the pony’s mane.