Barn Rules

 Zane's favorite upstairs activity currently is playing with his new little barn and the farm animals that go with it. Over the past week we have had to come up with a few 'barn rules.'

 1. The barn must stay on the coffee table. This rule was started after multiple accidents where Zane tried to walk and push the barn around the floor, leading to falls and tears. However, this has also led to our coffee table taking quite the beating, but it had a good run, it's a play table now.

2. Rule number one leads directly into rule number two which is: You cannot pull the barn off the coffee table and onto yourself. This is a hard and fast rule that we have had many conversations about. Everytime he goes to pull it off he looks at me, with a look that says "can I pull it off now?" The answer is always no, he was trapped under the barn one time and that was enough. He seems to have accepted this rule because he hasn't tried to pull it off today.

3. The third rule is really more for me than Zane. All animals must be put back into the barn at the end of the night. If we didn't do this they would all be lost in a day, rendering the barn useless. This has led to some funny evening animal searching. For example last night the goat was lost, so Zach and I went on a hunt for him. During the hunt the goat was named Gary and don't worry he was found under the ottoman. 

The moment Zane starts playing with it the next day the animals are spread around the house again. The horse, for some reason, is always his choice to go with us on our outings, and he seems to think Farmer Joe should go in the bath tub. None of the other animals have names yet, but I'm sure we will come up with some soon.

And that is the story of little Zaney's barn. What a fun stage!