Near our home, is a petting zoo, which is open during the summer.  It’s only fitting that I finally write this post seeing that tomorrow is the last day it is open for the year.  We (Malin, Joel and I) have taken the boys there many times during the summer (so much so that some of the staff know their names).  In the beginning, the boys were leery of petting the animals.  If an encounter happened, then it was quick like you had just touched something extremely hot.  My first memory of taking Nicholas and Dexter there on my own was watching one of them decide that the best place to pet was the sheep’s anus.  Thankfully, I was nearby and shouted “No” before hand could meet bottom.  Nicholas, is what I would call a serial petter.  If all the animals were lined up eating hay, he’d swoop in and pet each one just once like he was playing duck duck goose and move on.  Dexter needed a lot of encouragement.

Today was a different story.  I saw Dexter stroke a goat many times in a row and also pet a big horse – no fear whatsoever.  Nicholas, Dexter and Joel all talked to the geese and got them to talk back.  They both call a cow a moo, a pig a neuff (Swedish way to say oink oink), a sheep a baa, a chicken a cluck cluck, and a horse a neigh.  They love visiting the petting farm and I’m sorry to see it close so early in the summer.

Here are pictures from one our many trips.  Below, you will see Nicholas watching a goat lick a lock near his head.  I think he was a bit fascinated, then irritated with the goat because it wanted to share the step Nicky was sitting on.  Enjoy!

Nicholas mimics everyone he meets. 

Bye Bye animals.  We had a great time.  Can’t wait for next year!