This afternoon we took a walk through the woods to Stefan's uncle's farm, Sicklings, where Stefan's dad grew up, to look at some dirt that we are going to drive to the lot tomorrow so we can move our perennials before winter. It is just through the woods behind our apartment complex. Haylie rode her bike without training wheels. She has tried a few times this summer but has been unstable so Stefan has had to help her. Suddenly today she could ride by herself and even learned how to start and stop without help. It was a nice walk on a nice day, although she had to stop every ten feet to check stuff out. The blue raspberries, Salmbär, are ripe now, so she ate quite a few. When we got there, we had to inspect some piles of dirt, mushrooms, young salmon in the creek, and pick flowers. Stefan went to look at the topsoil while Haylie and I talked to the horses and sheep. We fed the sheep some nice clover that was outside of the electric fence just out of their reach.
When we finally made it home, I made pizza for dinner and Haylie went off to ride her bike with her friends Leo and Tuva. Stefan was a little worried, but she rode off with all the confidence in the world. She has learned that if she loses control to steer off into the grass and stop, so it went fine.
Yesterday was the first day (if you don't count the morning) with no huge power struggles, so we had a nice evening, with American pancakes and bacon for dinner, and chips and dip and a movie afterwards. We rented Happily Never After on the internet. Haylie liked it a lot. It was so nice to have a break from fighting with her.
