My dearest Karen gave us this bouncer when her littlest lost interest in it, and it has been amazing. Atti will bounce in it literally for hours. He calls it his “Shake-a Shake It”

This is all he wants to do anymore. He’ll say, “Let’s go. Shake-a shake it. Yo yo ga.” Like, “Hop to it, Jeeves.” And then he’ll bounce and bounce and bounce along to his Yo Gabba Gabba jams. We could not give him better therapy if we had a physical therapist on call 24/7.

I have been running myself ragged over the last couple of weeks. Even after all the quilting and building and fruit picking, there is more I have to tell you including actual farming and four straight days of canning. I am exhausted, my poor child is neglected, and my kitchen floor is coated with sugar and fruit juice.

So today I am going to sit in the sun, cuddle my little guy, and read a book.

Right now Atti is still spending more time eating the books than looking at them, but when someone can pry it out of his mouth and actually read it to him, he’s in heaven. He’ll bounce on my lap like he can barely stand the excitement of waiting to know the ending. He would sit and be read to all day long if someone would do it.

This is MY kid, alright.

We’re slowly slowly slowly settling in around here, but this weekend kicked off the agricultural festivals this area is so known for, so we scrubbed the paint out of our hair and headed out for a day in the sun.

There were lots of examples of celebrating California history. You could pan for gold with this guy who looked like he was born for this job, or take pictures with people decked out in full on cowboy outfits complete with leather chaps. People take their historical reenactments seriously.

I think it might be a law that a California festival feature classic cars, particularly here in the home of American Graffiti. I was stopped in the parking lot on my way out by two different people asking if there were classic cars to look at. People around here take their cars even more seriously.

This is what I take seriously. Artisanal foodstuffs. There are so many little local companies throughout the valley that grow and bottle the most amazing things. This company bottled flavored oils and vinegars and I had a wonderful time tasting each one.

There’s a Hershey’s factory in Oakdale, which is why they hold a chocolate festival there, but this one was kind of disappointing. There weren’t a ton of chocolate vendors there, and then we had to wait in a line for nearly an hour to get a couple little free samples. But at the end of that line was the booth with the fancy caramel apples, and they were worth the wait. Caramel apples are another of my obsessions, and this booth had one they called “Ala Mode” which was a caramel apple dipped in a hard yogurt topping and sprinkled with cinnamon. Oh wow was that good.

Atticus was just happy to leave the house.