Maybe Goats are GOOD!?!

Dear Hank, 
Per invite from our pals David, Kate and Abraham on a Sunday afternoon we took an1.5 hour trek to Capriole, a little goat farm cozied up in some rolling Indiana hills.  Mama and Daddy love to go on long rides that meander through small Main Street towns and you love animals so the trip satisfied all of our tastes.  Upon arrival there were soft drops of rain making us doubt this jaunt but soon after setting out through the barns it left and a beautiful day unfolded.  As previously mentioned goats and Henny equals a love/scared relationship.  You love them, but then at night when you're curled in your bed, thumb in mouth, blankets in hand you hear them knockin' on your window.  The first barn was full of young goats rousting about.  Big buckets of food hung from the fence edge, which your little fists shoved in and out of, dumping the food on the goat side of the fence in a near continuous motion. 
As other people left that barn I set you up on a big bail of straw and you discovered if you 

ripped out a bundle and stuck it out the goats would gladly snack out of your hand.  You giggled and laughed as an eager mouth tickled your hand.  We moved to the barn where the bigger goats and mama goats were housed.  We had just missed a baby goat being born!  The after birth still clung to her hind side and baby worked to get to her wobbly legs.  Bummer! but the lessons of life weren't missed too.  You enjoyed finding and pointing out, loudly I might add, those goats having a poop or pee or the mama goat giving her baby milk from her utters.  All that goat feeding made us hungry so we went to sample some goat cheese.  I am no foodie, I have never had goat cheese, so goat cheese after goat watching wasn't sounding very appetizing.  We tried some anyway and it was very good.  You tried some and decided, "Goat cheese is VERY GOOOOD!  I like goat cheese!"  We ate our sample down by the pretty pond.  A boys playground!  You fed goats, saw chickens, walked long rock walls, threw pebbles into the water, poked sticks through the mud, climbed in a tree, bug watched with Jackie (Kate's mama) and watched Abe's diaper change.  Daddy had to work the next day so we started to leave about 5:00.  I say started because our van was parked passed the goat barns and we got caught up feeding the goats again.  So another hour playin' with the goats and you've shown NO FEAR! NO APPREHENSION! -Until-  the adult barn.  

A doggone goat with a big long black beard came to the fence while you were feeding three other goats and scared you!  You started backin' away, and wanted to leave.  For the next week all we heard was, "Goats are nice!  I don't like that goat with the big bad black beard."  You slept with us that night.  A week later you've started to let it go of the goat with the big bad black beard but just before sleep you tell us, "Don't be afraid of the goats!"  
Love you!
Mama

Babe-ra-ham is Here!

Dear Little Buddy, 
Since finding out four months ago that our friends Kate and David are expecting you have been so excited to meet baby Abraham.  In preparation you have been diapering your baby, holding him and learning gentle touches.  Well!  He is here!  Abraham James was born late on the 17th of May, weighing 6lbs 1oz  and stretchin' 18 inches long.  Yesterday morning when I came to get you from your crib I informed you on his arrival.  I told you he was "out" of Kate and you could touch and see Abe now and an impossibly big smile came across your face and you screamed out, "YEA!  I am going to teach him to stand on one leg!"  While he isn't quite ready for standing on one leg, he was ready for a visit.  While getting ready to go the hospital you kept laughing and telling me that you are going to see "Abe-ee Baby."  We clipped the finger nails on your quicker than a cheetah hands and sanitized them twice on the way to the room.  I begged and pleaded that you refrain from yellin' or scratchin' that baby!  After we entered the room 'Henny wanted out of his stroller' immediately!  "Let me see that baby!"  It was hard to hold you back.  We went closer and like every newborn he was perfect, tiny, preciously pink and golden.  The trio that is now Kate, Dave and Abe have been through so much the last few days.  What a crazy storm that ended in this new life wrapped tightly, sleeping peacefully in his bassinet...only to have big Henny come to take a peek 'n' a poke or two.  

You were born at the same hospital as Abraham.  As we walked to Kate's room today I would feel little rolls of emotion thinking, "This is where Steve and I stood while we listened to Peep's first cries, or that is the room where we stood with Jo Jo and held you, the three of us admiring your handsome features."  Then while seeing Abraham and Kate, on an uneventful day, getting to know each other as we did all those days ago I was yearning for those flashes of love back.  We all really do start out so very perfect, hopeful, and unique. 

I can only hope for you, as well as Abraham that we as parents and that life, in general, leads you gently to adventures coated by enormous love, awesome people, resilience, and a way to not be ashamed of or too shy of your own uniqueness.  I asked Kate, "What is the first thing you hope that Abraham learns."  After a pause she said, "To laugh."  Trust me, I haven't met two people with more robust laughs so Abe better get that lesson down quickly.  There is a deeper element to laughter though...it is looking at the bright days more than the dark (or at the very least finding humor in unlikely corners) and knowing that there is always happiness waiting for us.  It is a necessity to seek it out.  I want happiness for you, our family...and Abe and his family.       
Love You!, 
Mama