Saturday, January 27, 2007

Look At That Goat, Honey!

We are so City. If there was ever a question before, it has been answered as of yesterday.

We went to the livestock and equestrian show. Our city has one of the largest stock shows in the U.S. and we've gone every year that we've been together. The first few years, I think we fit in pretty good. Even went to the rodeo without looking too deer in the headlights. I yee-hawed with the best of 'em.

This year we loaded up the double stroller, the Snugli (aka the Life Saver), the diaper bag, our two children and us. I opted against Bella's faux fur sweater set that just screamed Gymboree, and instead she wore jeans and a hoodie.

We wandered around aimlessly, Bella's excitement building for the animals she was supposed to see. The first animal? A horse. Walking away. So she got to see a horse's butt up close. I just prayed that was all she'd see at that moment.

I don't know WHY but it took a good hour, 3 corn dogs, a bag of caramel popcorn and a greasy ham n' cheese sandwich for us to decide we needed a map. Bella had yet to see anything other than the equestrian behind and her humor was leaving the premises. Oh, we could hear the swine, the chickens, the cows and the goats, but had yet to find them among all the barns and auction houses with high stalls.

FINALLY, we found what we were looking for. The children's barnyard. Newly hatched baby chicks, ducklings, calfs, bunnies (only the cutest EVER!), miniature horses, piglets, and a turkey the gobbled and made the city kids scream with delighted fear while the country kids looked confused at such a response.

Bella took a cute picture with four precious baby goats. She was too enamored to look at the photographer so the girl started yelling Bella's name to get her attention. "ISABELLA! LOOK AT THE CAMERA! ISSSSSSABELLLLLLLLAAA!" Whatever. Bella was way more into this fuzzy little creature laying on her lap. That polaroid was $7.50.

Afterwards, she took an adorable picture on a miniature horse. Pink cowgirl hat, chaps, bandana and huge smile. She threw a fit when she had to get off her new toy.

Then said she needed a picture with the chickens. Fortunately, there was no booth for that.

Three hours and well over $100 later, I was carrying Bella, Ava was in the Snugli on my husband and the stroller was strewn with goodies and crumbs. It was time to go home.

On our way out, we're walking by the area the animals use to exercise.

I exclaim, "Bella! Look at the goat, honey! Isn't it so cute?!"

It baa's at me.

Oh. It is a shorn sheep.

I may as well have offered up some hot sauce from NEW YORK CITY! for the looks I got.

The country folks rolled their eyes, a few chuckles were heard and my husband laughed hysterically. (hey, mister, I didn't see you pipe in that it was a sheep!)

Next year, I will at least know the difference between a goat and a naked sheep. I just hope Bella continues to not take notice of the huge difference between a bull and a cow. And I do mean huge.

5 comments:

Amanda said...

hopefully, you will never have to talk about "heifers," which i always thought was a bad word, but which is actually some part of the Cow Food Group. after three years of teaching at a rural school, i have yet to be able to wrap my mind around that.

Kelly said...

Heehee, great story! If it makes you feel any better, I would've probably gotten the goat and sheep mixed up too - and I got A LOT of country still left in me!

T-girl said...

ROTFLMAO!!!!! The goat and sheep... yeah... I grew up on a farm and when they are first shorn the difference is one bites and the other is too stupid to care! LOL I HATE goats with a PASSION! We had one as a kid who's idea of a rousing good time was to chase me around and try to eat me... or mount me, whatever he was in the mood for! LOL

AS- My mom grew up on a cattle ranch and when I lived in Panama I got in the habit of using some slang and one of the words they used was "hefe" which means "boss" in Spanish. So I am visiting and my Mom said something and I said "ok hefe!" SHE FREAKED! She thought I called her a HefeR in Spanish! It took a good ten minutes of calming her down from her rant on what a bratty ingrate horriable child I was for me to explain... she then felt stupid and yelled at me for THAT! LOL

tallulah said...

Heh Heh. That's funny city girl!

Girlie said...

Ohhh, I am still mortified when I just got here in the US and insisted to my husband that a 'heifer' is a baby horse and got so mad when he wouldn't agree. He showed me Mr. Websters...and that was that. UGh!

We live near Ft Worth and I have yet to make it to the livestock show. It's those animal smell. They gave me headache. They smell so poopy, but they really look adorable.

I remember when Chana was little, she saw a left and went into ecstatic exclamations. It hit me that I almost never took her to nature walk. We watch nature on TV and read it in books, but I don't let her roll around on leaves. I like city just fine.