She's Got Favorites

Pony Pal Mila spent the morning with us yesterday, and as usual, I got asked, "Grammy, could I see the horses?" We've got this down now - she knows how to be careful (it's kind of fun to see her so cautiously hold them) and I have a pretty good idea as to which ones she will want to see. She's got some favorites now.

Mila climbs up into the love seat and I open the china cabinet behind it and start taking requests.

My Hagen Renaker Designer Workshop Head Down Pony is almost always the one she asks to look at first. She really likes that piece.

The Black Horse Ranch Companion resin is another. She calls it "the heavy one." (Is it ever!)

 The Beswick Kick Start is "the funny one." (I agree with Mila's assessment - that piece is chock full of character.)

Always my RubberNed Tagus Circus Pony comes out and she even remembers to be extra gentle with the plumes. (She also loves the orange crystals that Donna embedded in the tack when she made him.)

 I have a very old Japanese Samuri Boys' Day War Horse made out of paper mâché that I got in the mid 1970s. It was old at that time, and when I took it out of the cabinet today

 I was saddened (but not surprised) to see some deterioration on a hoof had begun. 

There was also a crack in the hind leg. They're so fragile and this piece is probably 70 years old or so. 

 A new one for Mila to see was my Apple-oosa, a very early piece from Trail of the Painted Ponies. She thought the apples were pumpkins at first.

Naturally we had to drink out of the stirrup cup from the 2012 Breakables show (Cowpoke Ian was thirsty, too) and then I closed the cabinet and redirected the kids to other things.

Pony Pal Mila lived up to her nickname - first she played with the stable and horses I keep tucked under the coffee table in the front room.

and then she colored in the Breyer sticker book.

My laptop had a few more decorations added to it, too. 

This was the first time that my heart didn't race a bit when Mila asked to see some of my chinas. And now I am getting a good idea of which pieces she likes so that I can earmark them for her to have when she is older. Like I said, clearly she has favorites.