I am discovering that "almost 3" is a completely foreign place. My sweet little girl is just...unexpected. Things she's always loved, she suddenly doesn't. Things she's always eaten, she suddenly won't. Things she's never done, she's doing. Attitudes are emerging that I do NOT approve of. Needless to say, the 2's were easy. The 3's may be something entirely different. We shall see.

Meanwhile, we're seeing every day that things may not go the way we thought they would. For instance, while at Big Cedar, we had planned to surprise Brooklyn with a pony ride! For anyone who knows Brooklyn, she loves to talk about riding horses ("I ride a horse yesterday!"), she loves to play with horses, read about them, look at them, pet them, etc., so we figured - awesome. We're gonna make her so happy.



We arrive at the stables on an incredibly freezing day, bundled to the hilt. She sees a paddock of horses and starts squealing. All good signs. We sign the papers, talking the whole time about how she's about to ride Chester the pony. She agrees gleefully! We approach Chester, she pets him enthusiastically. And Kyle lifts her to place her on the saddle. Oh NO, says my little girl. NO!!!! GET ME OFF! I DON'T WANNA RIDE!!!!! Tears, squeals, terror. What? Where is this coming from? Are you kidding me???

Our friendly Big Cedar employee has clearly seen this happen before as he doesn't bat an eye. "It's cool. I'll refund your room." Turns out August got more out of the experience than did Brooklyn.