Toddlers can be scary...

I love that my boy is so brave, seemingly scared of nothing. Well, that's not entirely true...he still doesn't know what to think of the giraffes at the zoo and refuses to feed them. Otherwise, he's extremely brave.
But then there are days that that bravery scares the daylights out of me!!

Today we went to the barn...nothing unusual. Luke loves it out there. He gets to be outside, he gets to be very dirty, and he gets to be around the animals (barn cats, dogs, and, of course, the ponies). Since we have the first show of the season on Saturday and the ponies are still sporting sort of long manes and winter coats, we have our work cut out for us. But before we could start working on "beauty day" stuff, a few of the ponies needed to be moved. Terie is doing some work in her old rock barn and one of the stallions was hanging out in different pen. She asked me to get him and bring him back to the rock barn.

Now, let me say I LOVE this pony! He is just the sweetest thing on the planet. If you didn't know he was a stallion, you'd never guess it. I don't let Luke just walk up to him, of course, but he's petted this pony through the fence before. Anyway, I knew today was NOT a day for Luke to be near before I even got to the gate of the pen....Loti actually walked to the gate with a sour look and ears back (not pinned, just letting me know he wasn't his usual charming self). I told Luke to step well off to the side and stay still as I unlatched the gate...Luke, being the good little boy that he is, complied.

Loti was so goofy! A couple of the mares are in season, so he's, ummm, enjoying the "smell" of spring. He started making "I'm in the mood for love" noises before the lead was attached, then about ran me over to get out the gate. He got in trouble for that, and stood still while I latched the gate back. Luke was still waiting well off to the side and out of danger. Good boy. As soon as I turn the pony to walk back to his stall Luke ran up to his belly and started petting.

Holy crap, I think my heart stopped! Scared me completely to death!! I had visions of a 21-month-old boy flying through the air from an amorous stallion!! Somehow I managed to not freak the pony OR the boy out, and I must have sprouted wings to get Loti to move his butt over while I kicked Luke out of the way (the pushy cow-kick thing, not the knock-you-on-your-butt kick). I shoved my elbow into the pony's shoulder to get him to stand still (he was even more up after all of this) and calmly told Luke to move away. What a great kid I have...he listened and moved away. As I started walking the pony again, Luke followed, but he remained WELL out of kick range and close to the hay barn.

Silly pony saw one of the mares in heat and started puffing up. "Look at me, look at me! Aren't I handsome? Let's have dinner tonight!" Prance, prance, prance...Never happen, Loti...that's your granddaughter. Once he was back in his stall, he puffed down and decided to pout. Luke came back to my side at this time and was thrilled to be able to pet the pony in a safe manner.

Now it was time to get on with "beauty day." One of the ponies going this weekend got 2 hours of us fawning over him. Bath, mane pulled, and clipped...trace clip to disguise the area the vet clipped a few weeks ago when pony was sick, muzzle, bridle path, ears, and feet. This is an experienced show pony, but he was NOT thrilled at the aspect of getting wet. Luke was a very good boy. He likes this pony, but seemed to sense that he was supposed to leave him alone today. He focused his attention on the rock pile, tractor, golf cart, and cat's water bowl. Not only was he filthy by the time we were done, he was exhausted.

Luke absolutely loves being outdoors. He never wants to come inside. I think that's a wonderful thing! It's hard in the winter when you basically have no choice but to be cooped up, but as soon as the weather warms up a bit....that's his favorite. It means he gets to be OUT! Works well because he has no choice but to be out while at the barn. He's also quite independent when outside....loves to show you what he's doing, but would rather you not help. Also works quite well when at the barn. What IS hard about it, though, is trying to get him to realize he does need to come inside at some point. It's hard because he gets mad. It doesn't matter if he's only been out for 5 minutes, or if he's falling down tired, if you say it's time to go in the house (or even sometimes the store), he starts with the "NO!! NO!!" Probably 95% of the time he ends up being carried like a football into the house because he just flops down and that's the only way to get him inside. Then he cries. Every single time he cries. And works as hard as he can to get the door open (we'll soon be adding special locks at the top of the doors so he can't escape), and cries. Every. Single. Time.

For the parents of a well behaved child, this is difficult. You really don't know what to do!! We finally figured out if we just ignore him and start doing whatever we need to get done, he quickly gives up. Then he comes and helps us. We tried other things, but this works best for the boy. He'll figure it out soon enough. In the meantime, he's going to have a WONDERFUL summer out of the house. And I'm looking so forward to it...I hate being stuck in the house. The past 2 summers (2006, especially) were very difficult since I wasn't able to do much. Now that I can AND he wants to....we won't be home very much :)