this is the way we milk a cow.

last weekend, the dominican republic celebrated their independence (from haiti, i think), and since independence is a pretty big deal, we got a three day weekend. while most of the country flocked to carnaval celebrations, we piled into a van with some friends and headed to the campo to visit amalio's dad and hit the beach.
samil's been begging to see his "papa" for awhile now, but since he lives so far away and we're not montados in our own car, it's hard unless there are a significant amount of "no school days." luckily, we got a ride this time around.
samil loves his papa, but really what he loves is taking care of the vacas, which he'll classify for you as mommy cows, toros and becerritos - why he doesn't know the word for a heifer in spanish is beyond me - his only association with farm animals is most definitely not in english.
amely likes animals - and she's definitely more daring around them, grabbing chihuahuas and carrying cats - but she also likes to sleep in (mostly because she doesn't sleep at night), so she never really had experienced the milking process before this weekend. she got up early with her brother, and waited patiently (because they were awake before the farmer!) for papa to get back with the cows.
samil has gone from passive observer to gate-keeper for the calves. he opens and closes the door when papa tells him to. he also gets to walk the cows to pasture which he thinks is pretty cool, especially since papa let him take the calves all by himself - he ran them up the hill yelling "go baby cows, run, run, fast!" and was pretty concerned when he couldn't get the fence closed - he doesn't realize how dumb cows are yet... i mean what other animal lets a four-year old herd them?

amely loves the milk donkey - but she didn't get to see him this visit - in fact, it was raining so hard, i didn't even hear him pull up, and caught this picture of him leaving!