I hope that it will keep Carrie occupied with her filly while Shane and I do some traveling.
Carrie's thoughts aligned with mine. She used a cooking trick when the glue wouldn't open: She hit it.
Worked like a charm.
We set up an assembly line and blitzed through the final fourteen panels.
Shane.....Shane sat on a phone. Carrie didn't want to deal with distractions. I get it, but I also don't like sit down, shut up, and zone out (Not that I haven't used it before). It's harder on us when Shane is asking 5,000 different things to do and trying to run off, but he's got to learn how to entertain himself appropriately to make it through life!
It did make the job a hundred times easier. It was probably the right call even if I don't want to admit it.
We got the round pen up, oval, and eventually round. Carrie used some jumps to brace it.
That's when I took the phone from Shane. He sprinted off to the duck ponds within seconds. Wait....what's that spec over on the far field?
It was a dog. Arlo. And he was watching Shane.
Arlo trotted over. He jumped in the water while Shane tried to look down the drain to the waterfall.
Carrie worked to get her pony time in while I played lifeguard.
Nibs momentarily balked when Carrie led her to the round pen, but she went in easy enough.
Nibs could knock the whole thing over with a solid kick, but horses are part chicken. Looked like the training was going well.
Shane was my main focus. I had to tell him three times to stop trying to throw the big waterfall rocks into the ponds. He'd wander off and try to do it from a different angle to hide it from me. The third time his butt ended up in time out.
I get the allure, but these rocks were clearly brought in and used to build up the waterfall. I wouldn't care elsewhere (If anything, I'd join in).
Shane loves nature. He wanted to chase ducks, but got to feed them instead. Which he really liked hopping up to scare them a few steps back. Then he laughed as their appetites overruled their caution and they charged back in.
The dogs made for sturdier playmates.
Here were animals Shane could chase without getting yelled at.
The dogs even liked it.
We made a bonus barn stop at Jenny's. The gravel pile is much diminished.
The owners still aren't upkeeping their property at all. The front fence lines are a wreck. That has to hurt Jenny's ability to attract boarders and business. All of the horses are in a back field, but the only way to see it is to walk past the mess, through a trail in the woods, and into a clearing.
Carrie dealt with the horse stuff. Shane ran to climb a pine tree. I stay nearby for safety, but don't usually partake. If anything, I try to act as inconspicuous as possible so Shane will play naturally.
Not that it works. He knows I'm there. Maybe I should hop in more, but I'm afraid I'd deplete my entire store of energy for the day keeping up with him. I'd be in bed by 2 PM!. The who'd keep Shane busy? I feel like I'm running a marathon when watching him: I have to pace myself to make it to the finish!
Shane was happy to run around Jenny's barn again. He's got some good memories here.
Carrie gave Armour some care and love. She worries about Shane in general, but around horses?
Which was good that she didn't see this developing. My philosophy is to let Shane try stuff and discover why it's a bad idea on his own.
He'll remember picking the slivers out of his socks more than the "I wouldn't do that," I uttered.
And I can laugh about it, too. Shane will probably think it's funny when he's older.
Jenny finished riding and came up while Shane and Carrie were petting a barn cat. They talked some shop, but I was at my limit. It was time to go home.
Guess who knocked? I'd love for Shane to get fully engrossed in a quiet indoor activity at some point, but it hasn't been in the cards! Carrie was on back-to-back business calls and Nova was sleeping, so it's not like I could bring the kids inside.
We ended up out from for a couple of hours. I did my best to be boring, so that the kids would play with each other. Raheem's obvious that he wants me to pop up and play basketball/entertain. I'm a burned out old man on summer break and they need to practice being friends, so I wasn't having it. Rah will sometimes throw a ball to me regardless of whether I'm looking or not when Shane stops everything to stare at a bug. Sometimes I throw it back. Sometimes I toss it the other way.
I forced Shane to go with me to the library after dinner. I wanted to pick up a book on CD for the trip. You'd have thought I asked Shane to clean out the cat's pot barehanded. I insisted we'd go. Shane insisted we should wait as long as possible before going and then do the deed as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, Rah desperately wanted to go. I was tired and didn't want to clean out the whole car for a quick drive by, so I told him "Not this time."
Shane wanted to run to the library when we got out of the car. Then he told me, "I don't want to check anything out," as we walked in.
Then, he sat and read a book for 10 minutes.
Typical Shane. We stayed for half an hour. I started to feel guilty about not bringing Raheem because it was a "short trip", so I told Shane it was time to go. \
I was ready for electronics by the end of the night. So was Carrie. She'd been working while we were outside save for a 'break' to get a cortisone shot in her knee.
I wrote a lot and took a lot of pictures. No wonder I'm tired!
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