Spring has officially arrived: The horse pasture has opened. In the winter, the horses are confined to the corrals around the barn while the horse pasture, with its steep incline, is reserved for sledders. But for the first time this season, there are horses grazing there today on the wide grassy slope. It looks like a much more pleasant place to be a horse than the rocky, muddy corrals. AJ and I have befriended one of the horses who comes over to use whenever we approach the corral fence. He nuzzles us with his velvety nose and is overjoyed when we bring him carrots or feed him the juicy tall grass that is just out of reach without human assistance. It�s become a daily pilgrimage to say hello to �our friend,� as AJ calls him.

After making our daily visit, bearing greenery, we made a much overdue trek to a local clothing and toy establishment to purchase some pants that actually both come down to AJs ankles and also stay on his waist without serious cinching from a belt. We also fell in love with and brought home a toy pirate ship which we�ve been playing with ever since. It came complete with a hammock to sling from two plastic palm trees (because a pirate needs a place to relax at the end of a long day of marauding) and a mermaid, who seems to have captured AJ�s particular affections. She�s supposed to be the figurehead, but AJ seems to want her to have the cushiest looking of the hard plastic beds, rather than cling to dear life to the side of the ship.

AJ�s been exhibiting a sudden increase in caretaking behavior in general. He won�t go to sleep until he carefully tucks his stuffed caterpillar in beside him (head on the pillow, of course, although occasionally he accidentally puts the tail on the pillow, as it is a little hard to tell the two ends apart). Most mornings he arrives in our room with his blankie, his caterpillar, his stuffed fish known as Rub-a-Tubby (which, I believe, was the name on his tag, some eons ago when he actually had a tag) and a small fleece pillow meant for camping that he calls Fuzzy Pillow. The group is collectively known as his "guys." Caterpillar, having once been intended as a baby toy, has some jingly and crinkly bits, so you can usually hear AJ and co. coming from a mile away. But this morning AJ snuck up on me and shook me awake. He was caterpillarless. He explained, �caterpillar was still sleeping so I left him in bed.� Hmm. Caterpillar has all the luck.

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