My brother Tim, his wife Heather, and their two daughters Nora and Ivy came for a brief visit near the end of May. They were hoping to be there when Sadie, Coral, and/or Tigerlily kidded, but they held out another couple of days. No matter! There were loads of other babies to play with!
Ivy was very excited to meet the goats! Finn and Sputnik came in close to see if there might be cookies involved, but when they discovered there was no food in the offing they moseyed along. They’ve met little kids before.

Nora was determined to hold a baby goat on her lap. One problem: the baby goats are big and Nora’s lap is small. Zelda, our dedicated lap addict, was the only one who really tried to make this work.

Nora quickly realized that it was much easier to forget about holding the baby goats and just let them sniff and be friends.

Butterfly showed Nora how to nimbly navigate a steep hillside.

Rita was convinced that miniature people are extremely dangerous. She kept running as far and as fast from Nora and Ivy as she could. I had to catch her so we could bribe her with cookies. She ate the cookies, but I’m still not sure we won her over.

The horses harbor no such suspicions of little people, and the offer of food is welcome from any hand that extends it. Dusty loves kids and is very gentle and careful.

Pepperjack doesn’t have much experience with kids yet, but he’s a gentle, quiet horse and looks like he’ll be a good one for teaching riding lessons someday.

Little Sunflower has turned out to be the liveliest baby of all this year. This little gal hit the ground running and she hasn’t stopped!
Sunflower’s mother is a worried first-timer who had a tough time keeping up with her little one at first. Sunflower kept eluding Sadie and sneaking off to play with the big kids. After about a week, Sadie eventually gave up and if you ask her where her daughter is, she gives you and exasperated look and would probably throw her hands in the air if she had them. But we don’t really have to ask where Sunflower is because she’s always in the thick of things–smack dab in the middle of the crowd of kids and usually playing hard with the biggest, roughest, wildest ones.

I was able to get a few shots of Sunflower by herself when she was a day or two old. Since then she’s either been a black blur in the middle of a crowd of kids, or she’s been a little black ball curled up sound asleep.

It was this face that made me think of the name Sunflower. The black with white stripes reminds me of a sunflower seed.

We ended up naming Coral’s kids Skipper and Scout.

It took a couple of days for Skipper’s ears to figure out which way to go. Right ear up, left ear down.

Right ear down, left ear up.

Right ear up, left ear down.

Right ear down, left ear up. Are we ever going to figure this out??

Scout’s ears stuck straight out for about a day, then the left one flopped down for a few hours before the right flopped down as well.

And for about two days, these flopped ears were the cutest ever. I hoped, hoped, hoped they would stay this way!

He looked like a puppy!

The older kids were curious about the newcomers. First Zelda and Sonic introduced themselves before Coral gently sent the big kids on their way.

Butterfly also wanted a peek at the new babies. I believe she’s asking their mama’s permission before saying hello.

I think Skipper is trying to tame those unruly ears of his.

Scout’s ears were perfect this way. Alas, within a couple of days they’d thickened just enough to keep them propped up and now his ears are straight. I so wish he’d kept the terrier look. It was adorable! But we love him just the same, straight ears and all.