Author: Jodi

Xander and Roman and I headed out to Noble Springs Dairy this morning for a tour. They usually really dig things like that, but for some reason…this time around…they became very quickly NOT INTO IT in a big way. Xander does not do hot or walking long distances. It turned out to be much warmer than I thought it would be, and my thought that I could get away without bringing the jogger stroller since I have such big boys now…was wrong!!! Looking back on it, I suppose it was quite funny but not in the moment to have two fairly big boys pitching laying down fits and refusing to walk while everyone else went merrily on their way. It wasn’t surprising to me in a way with the week I’ve had but still a bit of a kick in the pants on the way out the door at the end of the week. Needless to say, we left early. They were both excited about the barn cats, and that’s about it. The picture of Xander with the goat sticking his tongue out at him is pretty telling (definitely how I felt about my boys’ attitudes, obviously how the boys felt about the farm, and most likely how the farm animals, farmer and fellow tourists felt about my tantruming, wailing children). So there!

Xander, Roman, and I met a few moms and kids from our moms’ group for a preschool edition of a self-guided walking tour of downtown Franklin. It was really fun! It started out a little rocky with the bookseller arriving late to open up and only having one I Spy Franklin Preschool Edition book (we ended up just walking down to another shop to buy two more) and Xander pitching a fit because he didn’t want to leave the charming little kids’ room in the back of the bookstore without a story book he fell in love with (I totally get it). But the boys ended up getting really into it…I brought an extra piece of paper and a crayon for Roman, and he was right there in the middle of it. We spied the columns and a clock on the courthouse, the four owls on top of the buildings in the square, the statue of a man on the obelisk in the roundabout, the interesting shapes laid into the brick-face of the old bank, a gate that looked like gingerbread…and even made crayon rubbings of the first letters of the boys’ names from engraved stones in front of the courthouse and from a metal dial at the base of the monument in the square. I can’t wait to go back and take Jonas!