catty II

My sister-in-law Shannon is the queen of caterpillars. In the summertime, you can always count on them having a monarch caterpillar or two that they house until it becomes a beautiful butterfly. She's even raised some since the egg stage. I KNOW! She's like the Steve Irwin of caterpillars.

Now that Elian is at an age to appreciate the metamorphosis of creatures, I thought I'd try my hand at some caterpillar care. Our first caterpillar, "Catty" we called him, er, or her, I found crawling on my niece Chloe when we were at Minnehaha Falls. After some quick research, Ed found out that it ate oak leaves and that it would turn into not a beautiful butterfly, but a common moth (insert Debbie Downer sound effect). Still, we took care of that little guy like he was the family pet. It was very exciting when he started to make his cocoon (that looked more like a spider web to me). He stayed in that cocoon for months before I decided he wasn't coming out.

So a week or so ago, Elian and I were in the front garden when we spotted this little guy:


Do I dare try my hand at caterpillar care? I thought. But Elian was super excited. Maybe THIS one will turn into a beautiful butterfly. But after some quick research we learned, no, not this one. This one turns into another moth. A tiger moth (sounds fierce!) But Elian insisted we keep it. So I scraped Catty's crusty old cocoon out and we rinsed out the bug cage.

It's been about two weeks and I'm happy to report that Catty II is still alive and well. We had a close call about an hour ago when I was cleaning out his cage and giving him his daily dandelion and plantain salad (Do you know how much caterpillars poop? Who'da thought?) when Catty II fell out the hole and into the garbage. I fished around in the wet coffee grounds and god knows what else for a good five minutes before I found him. I almost gave up because the garbage was a little gross but I couldn't bring myself to have to tell Elian, "Mama accidentally dumped Catty II in the garbage..." The poor fuzzy little guy. I think he's okay, but he's probably got a pretty good caffeine buzz.

in which she gains not just another year but also 15 pounds

My friend Amy is the best. She sent me not one, but TWO dozen scrumptious and beautiful mini cupcakes for my birthday. Not only that, but when she was giving me the heads up about it over the phone. I mistakingly repeated back the word, "Delivery?" and the little dude heard it.

He has been quite obsessed with the UPS truck lately. Whenever we see it around town, he traces it with his eyes, following its next turn to see if it's headed toward our house with a possible delivery for him. After which I explain that it's not his birthday or Christmas so probably he won't be receiving anything via UPS anytime soon.

Well, Amy overheard his pathetic over-anticipation of this mysterious delivery (and how he thought it might be for him). So she felt she couldn't disappoint. So yesterday, not only did we receive the two dozen amazing cupcakes (plus four French macaroon cookies), but Elian got a perfect little waterfally sand toy for his new sand box (to be featured in a later post once the resident Hernan-dos photographer completes his photo series of our backyard project). The little man was beside himself when the UPS truck pulled up in front of our house. He nervously paced back and forth and ran to the door to peek through the window. If only I had captured it on video.

So before the arrival of the cupcakes, Ed promised Elian that they would make a cake together for my birthday. Do you think that two dozen cupcakes are going to deter the boy from baking me a cake (well, not one of the boys)? I explained to him this morning that with all the cupcakes, maybe he and Papa don't need to make me a cake. Shame on me. "Mama, you NEED a cake" (thankfully, he got Grandma Schulz's birthday-cake genes). We then decided that you could never have too much cake, so they plan to make it this afternoon. And I plan to eat it.

quote of the day

The other night the little man was having trouble falling asleep. I had been up there a few times. On one of the occasions there was this exchange:

MAMA: (Leaning over bed) Just close your eyes and think about things that make you happy...

ELIAN: (Reaches up and grabs one of my breasts) Like Mama's boobies...




Jeeeeesh, like father like son.

dear norman

Is it not enough that you've pee-killed three of our brand new plants in the backyard? Now you have to claim the boy's new sandbox as your bed?

And don't think I didn't see you when you lifted your head from Papa's brand-new pillow. We know it's comfortable, that's why we purchased THREE of them from the hotel. None of which was intended for you. BUT DON'T LET THAT STOP YOU.

It's too bad your life is so hard.

Love,
Mama

get up, stand up

Last night, when Elian and I were heading downtown to pick up Papa, Bob Marley's "Get Up, Stand Up" was on the radio. I don't think the little man had ever heard that song before but judging by his unusual silence, I knew he was listening. When the song was over he made a request, "Mama, can you put my CD on?"

Later that night, when I was putting him to bed entirely too late because of our picnic festivities, he didn't want to get out of bed to brush his teeth. "I'm tooooooo TYYYYYYYYYYYYRED," he said. I said, "Get up, buddy, we have to brush your teeth." I could see the lightbulb go on in his curly-locked head as he replied in perfect Bob Marley rhythm, "Get up, stand up..."

another year, another picnic

A few shots from our picnic last night. My, how they've all grown since last year.

enter the can-can phase

(This one goes out to Monkey who insisted he reads Hernan-dos and wants me to get off my lazy ass and resume the account of our boy.)

So a while back Ed's parents brought our nephew Thurston for a visit. I can't remember how old Thurston is, but he is a few years older than Elian. Maybe 8?

Anyway, we were all sitting around the house chatting. All except Thurston who had tons of energy that needed releasing. As a result he was jumping around the house doing the can-can and singing the music. Ed and I looked on in horror. Thank God, OUR son doesn't have that kind of energy we thought.

Well, recently Elian has proven us wrong. He DOES have that kind of energy. And then some. One day he was exerting the energy doing some sort of crazy song. Maybe he was singing one of the songs from the Songs of Music but in mock-Chinese. Ed looked over to me and said, "I think we've officially entered the Can-Can stage."

I'm not sure why I've been in such a blog rut. Maybe I can blame it on the summer fun and not wanting to sit down in front of the computer. Or maybe it's because Elian has been doing just too many funny things lately that I can no longer keep up with them. But after hearing from my reader, I'm going to try to make more of an effort to get this started again.