Pumpkin patch

Many thanks to our friend Molly and her son Henry who invited us to spend a day at the pumpkin patch for Henry's first birthday.

Henry and Riley. Rilz loved tooling around in the bumpy wagon.

Riley, having recently learned how to say "ball" was out of his gourd with excitement to discover a field full of big orange "balls."

Rilz went nuts for the orange pumpkins, but
wasn't too impressed with their green counterparts.

As much as Riley enjoyed the pumpkins, though, it was the petting zoo that really rocked his world. This kiddo is cuckoo for animals, and it showed. I couldn't get a lot of good pictures because I was trying to keep him out of trouble, but at one point he snuggled this donkey.  He also liked petting the pig, below.

 Without any doubt, the major objects of his affection

were the turkeys and chickens. 

In fact, he may have loved the helpless little chickens a little too much. He was absolutely fearless, picking them up and tucking them under his arms, two or three at a time! 

He was incredibly excited, but he may have also inadvertently been a little rough with the poor critters. You can see his joie de poulet in the video below. Note the sound in the beginning is Riley's super-excited growl. 

Oops! Time for mom to put down the camera and teach the boy how to be gentle. The first lesson didn't really sink in too well, and Riley actually got himself kicked out of the chicken coop for loving the birds a bit too much. He sat outside, rattling the cage, begging to get back in.

"Lemme at those chickens!"

Maybe we should get all trendy and get some chickens for the backyard. Riley would have instant best friends. Think of the benefits: 

1. Free eggs, and 

2. No need for me to suffer through another pregnancy just to make Riley a playmate!

Hmmm....that might be worth the stench of chicken poop.

We had such a good time at the pumpkin patch, Andy and I actually took Riley to another, much more humble, patch the next day. Here we all are on a hayride.

With dozens of farms and patches in the Bay Area to visit, it looks like we've got our weekends all planned out for the rest of October.