Aunt Melissa's Chickens

We spent several nights throughout our California vacation at my sister Melissa's house in Orangevale (near Sacramento). If you asked Eric and I about the highlights there, we'd probably say: swimming in their great pool, delicious bbq dinners courtesy of brother-in-law Andy who is a great grill master, Noah's bagels courtesy of my early-riser sister, or visiting with our teen nephews, among other things. But, if you put that same question to Oliver, he would undoubtedly answer: CHICKENS! Aaaaahhhh! Bak, bak!

My sister has 6 chickens that run around on her property, obviously a novelty for a city-dwelling toddler. After spending every morning and evening outside chasing these chickens, he's now officially crazy for chickens. He even does the "Chickens! Aaaaah! Bak, bak!" exclamation when we pass the Pollo Vivo shop on Lawrence Avenue on the way home from daycare. (Yes, there is a place that sells live chickens in our neighborhood -- 1.59 lb mediano / 1.69 lb grande.)

It was such a treat to see him get so excited over these things that I seriously considered our options for rearing a chicken on our back deck. As a second option, I also considered the awesome plush chicken puppet they had for sale at our local toy shop, but I'm way too cheap at $29.95. As a third option, I asked the balloon artist (Balloon-a-tic) at our block party last weekend if she could make a balloon chicken. Her response: "Nobody has ever asked."

So we'll just have to limit our Gallus domesticus interactions to trips to the farm at Lincoln Park Zoo, I guess. Oliver's school has a field trip planned there for this Friday, so I'll have to be sure to warn them of his obsession. I'm half expecting a call to come and pry him away from the chicken-viewing fence like we had to later in our vacation when he saw more chickens at the Sonoma County Fair. Those baby piglets and goats didn't stand a chance of winning his affections: