Fair day

For this post, I thought I would describe going to the state fair with Sonia. I highly recommended it.

Sonia has started noticing details in life. She has this radar which has not yet been trained to gloss over the mundane and is constantly pointing out these details. Her latest favorite is airplanes. I considered planes a preoccupation of a three year old and did not realize that such a young child would notice them. When she hears the sound of airplane she looks up and points, It turns out that planes fly overhead while Sonia is outside at least five or six times a day. They had some military show planes zooming around the fair grounds and Sonia would notice and look up even when she was surrounded by kids, animals, music and general noise.

Fortunately, she is noticing music in addition to noise. When there is a particularly moving song, she will turn and bounce with great passion. The cutest thing is when she does this little genie-arm motion, weaving her hand and twisting her wrists and shoulders. She definitely has her favorites. For months she has been groovin' to Burl Ives at Poggie and Grandma's house and lately to the Cabbage Patch Kid's record at our house.  She has some favorite sing-songs as well:  Six Little Ducks, Do Your Ears Hang Low?, Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes, and Rubber Duckie.  I got sidetracked there, but she also loved the background music at the fair provided by an omnipresent (in Albuquerque) group called Inca Gold.  They play  Peruvian music with traditional instruments and are good, but Alan and I are so used to hearing them in public spaces that we did not even realize they were there until Sonia started dancing and singing.  We took her over to stage so she could share her joy with the musicians and they seems very appreciative. 

The main reason we thought about taking Sunny to the fair (besides to get me my yearly gluten-free green-chili cheese fries) was to show her the animals.  I think her favorite animal exhibit was the pony ride, which was probably the first time she realized a girl could ride a horse.  She was a bit too young to ride, but she cheered on the other kids and their ponies until we had to drag her away.  She also got to see some rabbits, chickens, goats, horses and cows.  Each one got an adoring gaze and hopeful hand reaching toward the pen.  It is difficult to imagine this girl in a pet-free household.

I had to post the third picture for her great-grandparents, Drew and Janet, who are originally from Iowa.



At the fair, knee deep in corn provided by Future Farmers of America



Sunny with her chickens at home