Farm Show

Saturday the kids and I went to the PA Farm Show in Harrisburg. It’s like a state fair, only it’s all indoors and there aren’t any carnival rides or games, it’s all livestock and agriculture related displays. Oh, and a famous butter sculpture which is different every year. I had planned on taking Mini Momma along with us but when I called her foster mom I got an earful about her behaviors and a “sorry, maybe next time” response. It made me sad and of course it upset Chica Marie. According to the foster mom, Mini Momma had taken a wig from a young woman staying in their home and wore it to school, refusing to take it off during a physical when she was discovered to have the hair piece by her case worker. The foster mom was furious. I can understand her frustration because Chica Marie has done the same type of thing, taking an I-pod that wasn’t hers to daycare and stealing gum from my purse and eating multiple pieces of it on several occasions (I find it is such a sad thing that I can’t trust her to not dig in my purse when it’s sitting in a joint living space, that I have to hide it from her – I can’t tell you how much I hate that). Stealing and lying are horrible behaviors to have to deal with and these girls are so young I shudder to think what it might be like when they are older if they don’t stop these behaviors now. So, I get it, I understand where this foster mom is coming from. But, I find it unfortunate that the punishment was to keep her from her sister. The foster mom wasn’t at home with Mini Momma when we spoke, but she assured me she would tell her all about what she was missing out on due to her actions. I agree that Mini Momma needed to be punished for her behaviors, it was simply inexcusable, but she gets to spend time with her sister so infrequently that it seemed rather severe to prevent her from seeing her sister on top of it. Maybe I’m too lenient. I un-grounded Primero once to spend time with his eldest brother because he gets to do that on rare occasions. I just tacked the extra time onto the end of his sentence and he was agreeable to it. I just felt it was wrong to deny him access to his brother when he’s been nothing but a good influence in Primero’s life.

 

The Farm Show was fun, Love Bug fell in love with a huge Flemish Giant rabbit and howled when I took him away from the table so other kids could pet the bunny. Love Bug would probably still be there petting the rabbit if he had his way! He also made fast friends with a white goat who loved having her head rubbed. Primero wasn’t too impressed with the whole deal, but put up pretty well with it. Chica Marie fluctuated between excitement and disgust at the smells and animal bodily functions. She also got bored easily, but that’s just par for the course with her. We ended the day with the delicious and famous Dairymen milkshakes and rode the school bus back to our van.

 

Chica Marie decided she wanted to have beads in her hair. I’ve come a long way since I started doing her hair and the styles I’ve attempted have becoming increasingly more complicated, but I’ve never done beads. Chica Marie wanted a style that included braids, but my fingers just can’t figure out those tight tiny braids. I mean, I can braid and French braid or do a Dutch braid, but I just can’t get it tight enough to make the hair stay in the style. And it doesn’t help that Chica Marie’s hair is a much softer curl so it doesn’t hold as well as more tightly coiled hair, like her sister has. I made an attempt Saturday night and it ended in disaster and no beads. I did some more research and found a technique I thought would work and spent an hour and a half last night doing her hair. I did twists instead of braids and did a modified sort of box braid/twist. She was pleased to have the beads in her hair and super-excited to show her daycare teachers and fellow students. I hope we can leave the twists in for a few days and perhaps we will try some more styles in the future. It does save me time not doing her hair in the morning and I know I will get better with time and eventually I might be able to try some cornrow braids. I think Chica Marie is lucky in a sense because her hair can be in beads or not and it all looks good on her. Hopefully she will feel this way when she is older and take pride in her mixed heritage. At least, that’s my hope.