Goaties!

Noah got fences for Christmas (inspired by http://ana-white.com/2011/11/plans/play-fences-3). I really like the idea of simple toys to inspire imagination play and creative development. We played "goaties" for awhile last Friday morning, then, since it was so nice out, I took him over to see the real "goaties" at Oxbow. It was a fun morning!

While playing Goaties, Noah made me, the momma goatie, a nice meal. He went over to his pretend kitchen (the slide), and prepared a "grass and leaves quesadilla", because goaties like to eat grass and leaves (and quesadillas are probably his favorite food!). He also grabbed some blankets and made me a nice rest place in my corral. Sometimes he was the shepherd, sometimes the baby goatie, and sometimes he was just Noah. He didn't usually know what to do when I got out of the fence (because he left it open). I was hoping to see some herding behavior to get me back in, but he just hopped around and said,

"No, you have to stay in the fence!" We have a long ways to go before he could be a rancher or shepherd!

I think these are his favorite animal at Oxbow. We did stop by the otters' place to say "hi" and he was a bit disappointed that the bear was hibernating. The "farm animals" area is always where we spend the most time, especially the goaties.