random animal visitors

Spring has finally decided to stick around and the last several days have been delightful. Abraham in particular is in love with being outside as much as possible. The children are old enough now that we have felt fine about letting them be in the front yard alone while we are in the living room looking out at them. This was working great until we had a series of uninvited animal guests in our yard over the last few weeks that succeeded in freaking Rilla out about being outside without us.

The first was a huge pig. They were outside by themselves; Keith saw the pig, ran outside, and the kids flipped out and couldn't stop screaming. I think they were just initially not sure what to think of seeing a huge pig, but seeing Keith run out to make sure the pig didn't bother them then made them think that there was something scary about being alone with a pig. Of course the pig was completely harmless and the kids loved watching her out the windows for the next hour or two, but they weren't excited to be outside again right away.

watching the pig outside Rilla's bedroom

Then the following week, a dog showed up, and the first thing we knew about it was that the children were out on the steps screaming like they'd just shoved their hands in a hornet nest. That's really what I thought must have happened. We went racing out and there they were in hysterics, with the dog nowhere near them. It was a big friendly dog and Rilla was terrified that it would lick her face (a valid concern with the dogs that she is used to, and probably a valid concern for this big dog too). I have to admit, I still laugh a little bit about how horrified they were at the sight of a dog. I know, it is terrible of me. They were just so horror-stricken and I've never seen them like that before.... of course we comforted them and explained everything many times over... but still, it was rather humorous. Don't tell them I said that.

watching peacocks from the living room window

Since then, our neighbor's three white peacocks have been showing up in our yard several times a week, if not every day. They walk around outside, following the chickens and chasing off robins. This was exciting at first, and of course they are harmless, but now Rilla doesn't want to be outside without Keith. I don't think she has a clear idea of what kind of danger a peacock might present to her, but she's not taking any risks. Our yard is unfenced and until now there really haven't been any random animals in our yard other than the near-constant presence of deer and robins and chickens, none of which scare our little ones. But we are going to have to work through the whole fear-of-random-animals-in-our-yard thing.

feeding the chickens and the peacocks

The peacocks are fun to watch, though. Lately they have taken to getting up on the porch and peering in through the windows at us. I admit, sometimes I find it a little bit creepy, but of course part of being a parent is not letting such things on to your children... especially when one of those children is hesitant to be outside, but whose presence outside is required for the other child to be outside...

Abraham and Priscilla