Very good day with Peter

[beth_leonard]

Today I basically had a "hang out with Peter" day. I know there won't be many of these left where he's my special only child and I wanted to savor the moment. Pre-school is out for the day due to parent-teacher conferences, and I convinced Jon to take him from 7-9 am. He slept through the night (my responsibility) so I had a very good sleep and a very good day.

I took Peter up to Garrod Farms to ride the pony. I've wanted to do this since he turned 2, but haven't made the time until today. We talked a lot for the past few days about what it's like to ride a pony and how to act around horses. He seemed very enthusiastic, so I was quite surprised when the pony was ready for him and he burst into tears.

I used to volunteer up at the ranch, so I've seen children do this before, but I always assumed it was somehow the parents' fault for not preparing their child in advance, or making the child do something they didn't want to do. I suppose that's just another example of people needing to dispense all their parenting advice while they're still childless.

Peter was overwhelmed with just how big the pony really was. The kind staff went back to get a smaller pony, Baloo, after Peter completely melted down at their first choice, Spirit. I've worked up there so I know that Spirit is actually a much better first-ride pony for the inexperienced parent. Spirit is much less likely to eat grass, turn around, and trot back to the barn towing the helpless parent than Baloo is. Because I know how to handle horses, Baloo was just fine for us.

While they were back getting the smaller pony, I held Peter so that when the pony approached he'd be taller than it was. As it was he still cried for the first minute or two and clutched tightly to me and my hair while we stood still and the staff explained the loop for us to walk, and I tried to act like there's nothing scary going on at all. I talked to Peter and told him that it was ok to feel a little bit scared, but emphasized how exciting it was to be up high on the pony. It's just like riding on Daddy's shuolders. Mommy will be standing next to him the whole time and holding the pony.

Eventually he relaxed enough to disentangle himself from my hair and hold on to the saddle horn. We started off and within a few minutes he was smiling like he was king of the world.

When we got home we showered and he took a good nap, and in the afternoon we went over to a friend's house to play. It's yet another play-date to be able to join that babysitting co-op, so in some sense I accomplished something today. Mostly I just had a good day with Peter.

--Beth

Comments

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the first pony ride story! I hadn't thought about it, but it would make sense that horses are freaky when all that's at your eye level is the legs.