Compelled by emergency

The week before Halloween a friend invited us to Conners Farm for a harvest celebration with a big group of kids.  I always enjoy opportunities to teach Lily about the importance of agriculture without actually having to *live* on a farm myself, so I jumped at the chance.  I loaded her up bright and early and made the 45 minute drive out to "cow country", as Lily dubbed it.

We started our agricultural adventure out with a corn maze.  We had a choice.  Either the advanced twenty minute maze, or the easy ten minute maze.  Having a group of toddlers and preschoolers with us, we opted for the ten minute maze and excitedly began our journey, confident in our superior navigational skills.

Half an hour later, we were still wandering around a field of corn, struggling vainly to find the exit.  I'm sure we'd still be there if we'd chosen the "advanced" maze.

The people who run the farm were very relaxed.  They let the kids interact with whatever animals they came across.  Lily's favorites were the horses.  When it was time to leave, Lily was being so stubborn that I had to pull out the "Lily Victoria" card and insist that it was time to leave the horses.  To which she responded, "Mommy Elizabeth, I'm not done yet!"

I was laughing too hard to reprimand, so instead I gave her five more minutes.  It's important to reward creativity and independence, right?

After she got her fill of the horses, we went on a hayride.  At first my little Miss Priss was not having anything to do with the dirty bales of hay.  But once she got into the spirit of things, she had a blast.

Especially once these guys came up and started eating the hay.  Lily was absolutely thrilled.  For the rest of the day she kept asking me why those cows were eating our seats.

After the hayride, we went to the petting zoo where Lily got to feed the animals.  Now, let me stop here to explain something rather...um...delicate about the set up at Conners Farm.  You see, being a farm and all, they did not have normal toilets.  Outhouses were set up around the farm, though.  Lily, who had to use the restroom after the hayride, took one look at the inside of the outhouse and insisted she could wait until we left.  But after thirty minutes in the petting zoo, she was dancing from one foot to the other.  I asked her if she wanted to leave and find a bathroom somewhere else, but she said no, she could wait.  Then I tried to "force" her to use the outhouse, thinking if she just did it she would see it wasn't so bad.  But as soon as I opened the door she started arching her back and screaming and pulling away from me.  Deciding I didn't want to traumatize her, I gave up and we went on to the portion of our trip she was most excited for.  The pumpkin patch.

Unfortunately, by the time we got there the situation was so dire that she couldn't stand still long enough to pick out her pumpkin.  So I made an executive decision and we left the farm to find a normal toilet.  Sans pumpkin.  Fortunately, she was so preoccupied with her *need*, as it were, that she didn't offer a single complaint.

I found a McDonalds just down the road and when Lily walked into the bathroom stall her entire face lit up into a  relieved smile.  Then she said, "Thank soooooo much, Mommy, for finding me a clean toilet."

Next time we go (and we will be back, since they have all sorts of things going on there from strawberry picking to farmers markets to farm tours), I will stop at that McDonalds and make her use the restroom before we get there.  But bathroom emergency aside, we still had a great morning.