Cria Cuteness, Redux

Wow.  It HAS been a while since I last posted.  Seems like life has thrown all of my plans up in the air lately.  I think I've managed to do a few of the things I actually had planned.  Everything else has been a lot of juggling.

Today I wanted to go visit my friends who have the alpaca farm, but they weren't home.  I took pictures of the girls, and the baby boys.  Yes, they had a 2nd baby recently.  He wasn't nearly as big as Samson at birth, and because of the weather, he was also suffering from hypothermia.  Gideon spent his first night in the Florida room instead of the barn, surrounded by warm towels and blankets.  He's been a fighter, and is now doing just fine.  He's was skittish around me today, but Samson came right up to me, and tried to nibble my fingers!  Silly boy.

Gideon, sporting his coat.  Since he was smaller and had hypothermia, the humans don't want to risk him getting cold; Samson wore that same coat several times after he was born and the temps started getting lower.  It's pretty typical for crias (baby alpacas) to wear them in colder climates.

Gideon and Samson together.  Samson is definitely the more outgoing of the two, at least for now! He wasn't too far away from Gideon while I was there; he was a good big cousin!

He's just so stinkin' cute!  I really wanted to pet him, but kept my distance so I didn't upset him or his momma (Pearl is his mom).

My next self appointed alpaca photography challenge is to get a shot that REALLY shows off the eyelashes these animals have . . . beautiful and LONG.  How does Samson manage to keep getting cuter?

I think this is Pearl looking out the closer door of the barn, and there's baby Gideon coming out the other door.

I noticed today when I was reviewing the pictures, that Samson seems to be smiling in all of them!  Oh, and when he nibbled, it just tickled.

Samson checking out some of the hay in the barn.

Gideon in the "protection" of the ladies of the herd.

He's just so cute . . . wish I could cuddle with him (after brushing the hay out of his "hair."

The little ones checking out the bins inside the barn.

Gideon seems to be doing just fine these days, gaining weight as he should.  Hope to visit again in about a week and see how much he's grown.  I'm thinking it won't be long before I won't be able to tell the two boys were born a couple of weeks apart, and that Gideon was much smaller.

I wanted to get some pics of the boys running (when alpacas run, it's called pronking), but by the time I got the camera up to my eye, they were finished running . . . I think they were messing with me.