~The Next Generation~: New addition to our family

With absolutely no prompting, when people would ask Pierce what he wanted for Christmas, he always replied, "big cow!". Clearly this was not the standard answer of a 2 year old. Santa did deliver a big cow at the foot of the fireplace (and a baby cow in his stocking), much to Pierce's delight. For a good week or two, I'd find a little bowl of water out in front of him too, as Pierce was diligent about keeping his cow hydrated. And at given time I can find my round hot-pads from the kitchen, strewn throughout the house, as Pierce has given the cow a "hay bale" and if a shrink wrapped package of diapers is missing, inevitably it is at the foot of the cow acting as "feed sack".

All foreshadowing! Shortly after New Year's, Ryan asked me how I'd feel about taking in a baby calf, and bottle feeding it. Now I had been with him a couple of times when we were dating, as he bottle fed a baby for his best friend Craig; It wasn't bad, really. With each year of marriage I am getting a little more savvy though, and know the right questions to ask, after such propositions are presented. "How much is this going to cost us? Where is the calf going to go, and what's THAT going to cost us? How many times per day does it have to be fed and how many of those feedings am I responsible for? and How long is this calf going to be on the bottle?" PS- I remember Jodi talking about the babies keeping her up at night, when they were pulled from their mamas....so I knew there would be a lot of crying involved, to boot! All of his answers were within reason, and there was the most important fact of all...our toddler is COW CRAZY!! So of course, I agreed to it.

This past Sunday was the day of adoption. After church, Ryan headed out to the Bar Oak Ranch, to pick up our new baby! This calf was a twin, perfectly healthy and had been nursing just fine, but apparently you get a better sized cow if there's only one on the momma, so this one needed to go.

Without further ado...