The Farmer & Izzie

When we travel to the West side and Izzie sees an empty corn field, or sometimes just an empty field, she'll say, "Momma, look, it's a dessert."

When Izzie see a corn field that's ready to be harvested, she says, "Momma, look at all the corn. It's done growing."

When Izzie sees a tractor on the side of the road, she says, "Momma, is the farmer driving the tractor?"

(This is when I don't like taking the back roads to my parents house. I may have grown up in the country and I still love it, but I have little patience for tractors, combines and other farm machinery taking up the road. My children, on the other hand, are fascinated and insist that I drive slow so they can see the tractor and, more importantly, wave to the farmer driving the tractor. Izzie always says, "I'm going to wave. Momma, go slow so I can wave to the farmer."

Izzie knows that Amber's boyfriend is a farmer. She also knows that he is a dentist. She's pretty smart and observant for a three year old. This is what she said to me a few days ago. "Momma, Brian takes care of teeth and the corn." Then she told me she wanted to help Brian take care of the corn. I told her maybe she could help when she was older. That is one of my go to phrases. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. This time Izzie said, (Whiny voice) "But I really want to help Brian pick the corn." I told her that the corn fields are big and I didn't want her to get lost. I also told her that I didn't want someone to drop her off in the middle of a corn field to watch the corn dry. I kid. I didn't say that. Anyway, I'm sure Izzie's fascination with the corn and corn fields is because she's three and everything fascinates her, and because her Auntie's boyfriend is a farmer and she kinda loves Brian. She still wants to be a dancer and a doctor so if she wants to be a farmer too, why not. I encourage my children to be whatever they want even if that includes manure and a vegetable that causes me to break out in hives.

Yesterday Izzie came up to me and asked when we were going to see Nana and Papa. I told her in a few weeks. She replied, "Then I can drive the tractor?" Okay, so maybe she just wants to drive big machinery.