The Humans

A Bit About Rachel

Rachel & Shelby
I meant to get this blog started, oh, about 7 months ago, back when I still had "free" time, before the baby, the dog, the horse and the housecleaning all conspired to keep my time un-free. Early last summer, I searched high and low for information from other horse loving mamas, curious about the logistics of bringing baby to the barn. I wanted to know if babywearing while cleaning stalls, grooming and lunging was as practical as it seemed, or if baby would have to hang out in infant seats and/or playpens all the time. I found next to nothing. One forum discussed what to do with baby while riding, but nothing about what to do with baby the rest of the time. I suppose if I had my own barn, it wouldn't be as big of a deal, but as a boarder, I was sure issues would come up that I wouldn't think of beforehand.

Thanks to this lack of information, I've been figuring it all out, trial-and-error style. Which baby carriers work for which tasks, where breastfeeding is most easily accomplished, what I need to bring from home, what can live in the car or at the barn until needed, and more. I thought I might blog about it and save someone else from reinventing the wheel. And now that Miss Shelby is pushing 7 months old and able to entertain herself for longer periods of time, I finally will!

A Bit About James

James
James is my hot piece of man candy and Miss Shelby's father. He is nothing short of amazing. Miss Shelby loves him bunches. If he so much as steps into the room where she is napping, her internal Daddy-is-here-it's-playtime radar goes off and she instantly snaps awake. He is incredibly supportive of my horribly expensive and time consuming hobby, a.k.a. the horse. In fact, for the first few months of Miss Shelby's life (when she wanted to eat every two hours for two hours), James was the sole stall cleaner. Needless to say, I love him.

The Star, Shelby!

Miss Shelby
Miss Shelby is the bestest, most cutest baby in the whole wide world, and every time I think I couldn't possibly love her any more than I already do, she does something amazingly cute. She loves to watch the puppy dog do puppy dog things, like jumping up and down or eating the food she drops on the ground. Her main motivation to crawl is to get her hands on that puppy. She laughs when dogs bark. Miss Shelby also likes to watch Flash, the horse, eat treats out of my hand. It makes her giggle when Flash sniffs her, touching her face with tickly whiskers. I do think Miss Shelby will grow up to be an animal lover like her mama.